MeetingKlok
by MildlyInsane
Summary: Metalocalypse, Dethklok. This is another version of how the band Dethklok met each other, then turns into a kind of Toki-centered random happenings at early Mordhaus... Features Ofdensen, Toki, Skwisgaar, Pickles, Nathan, and Murderface.
1. Skwisgaar

_**Approximate ages of the band (in this story... not in the show)**_

_**Nathan: 25**_

_**Pickles: 28**_

_**Murderface: 30**_

_**Skwisgaar: 22**_

_**Toki: 16**_

_**Hmmm... I really don't know who is the oldest in the band, Dethklok, but I made a semi-educated guess, since I thought their ages might be relevant to this story, of how the band came together. I know I've already written story about how they ended up together, but I am so bored, and fan fictions of a sort that attract me are rare lately, so I'm just writing my own, even though I've already written another story, the events of which this one will contradict.**_

_**In this story, Nathan, Pickles, and Murderface have already met, but need a guitarist to complete their band. Contradicting my other story, in this one Toki and Skwisgaar haven't met each other yet.**_

_**xxxxxx**_

Skwisgaar sat backstage at his band's show. He hated his band. As a whole, they weren't impressive. The only reason why they had any fans was due to Skwisgaar's guitar. He would constantly try to get the other members of his band to sing softer or play more quietly, because he knew the fans were only there to hear him, but his band mates wouldn't listen, and their fan base was dwindling. A band is only as good as it's weakest member. All but one of the members were quite weak, and the fans were beginning to notice.

There was nothing he liked about his band. They were all from the states, and he couldn't even understand what they were saying half of the time; he wasn't great with English, and his band mates constantly used English slang, which Skwisgaar had never heard before. After a while he stopped even trying to understand half of what they said to him. He had little desire to know, because on the rare occasion that he had taken the time to figure out what they were saying, it was never worth knowing. Instead, he simply nodded tiredly at anything they told him, and just went about with his own business, playing the songs in the show and then staying as far from his band as he could manage whenever he had the chance.

He wondered how much longer his band would be hired to play anywhere, since he was the only member with real talent. It came as no surprise to him when the band's manager met him where he sat backstage after their unimpressive show.

"Hello, Skwisgaar," the manager greeted him, "I'm afraid I've got some bad news," he said, in a slow pace so that Skwisgaar could translate his words in his head, "you know that I think you've got some real talent, but if you're going to stay with these guys, I cannot keep managing your band," he lowered his voice, "these guys suck..."

"You don'ts thinks I alreadies knows dat?" Skwisgaar agreed, "dere's aints no ones in dis stupids towns datcans plays no instruments or sings, nothings! What's I supposed to do? You's blamings me fors dis guys whats can'ts plays nothings?"

"No. I'm not blaming you. But you're not going to make it anywhere with these guys, and you know it. You need to find a better band," his manager told him.

"Why nots you finds dem?" Skwisgaar suggested, "how's I supposeds to knows wheres any guys dats cans plays anythings are?"

"I'd be glad to help, but you haven't paid me for this month," the manager said, "I organized this show, and you guys haven't paid me."

"In case you didn'ts notices," Skwisgaar began, his voice becoming increasingly angry, "we don'ts gots no monies, 'cause no ones likes those dumb jack off dildos in dere whats can'ts plays or sings for nothings! How's I supposed to pays yous when I don'ts gots no monies!?"

"Well, you better come up with some money, because I'm not doing you any more favours until I've been paid for what I've already done," the manager explained.

"Fine den!" Skwisgaar yelled, "I just finds my own bands all by myselfs! Yous wills be very sorries dat you don'ts be de managers of us whens I finds dem."

"I'll be your manager," the man said, "you just have to pay me."

"No," Skwisgaar argued. The man had already made him too angry. He didn't want to work with him anymore, "no, I finds a differents managers. Screws you!" Skwisgaar stormed out of the room, without even informing his band mates of the situation. He didn't care about them anyway.

xxxxxx

Nathan, Murderface, Pickles, and their manager, Ofdensen had traveled long and far to Sweden. Ofdensen had suggested that they go there to search for a guitarist. All three of the current members of the band which was to be called Dethklok, when the proper members were located, had been in bands before, but their bands had each either failed due to drugs, alcohol, and/or death or due to the fact that the rest of the band members couldn't quite reach the fans.

At present, they were sitting in a hotel room. They had each gotten their own separate rooms, of course, but they were currently conversing in Nathan's room.

"So, what you're saying is, all we need is some guy who can play a guitar... and then we can be a band?" Nathan asked Ofdensen.

"Yes," the manager replied, "of course, that's no guarantee that you'll be successful."

"Scho... why don't you get a guitarischt who _will _be schuccesschful?" Murderface asked, "I mean scheriously... why waschte our time?"

"Well," Ofdensen began, "I'm going to do my best to find a guitarist who can keep up with your skill levels. If we don't find one who's good enough here, we'll look elsewhere."

Nathan sighed loudly, "Why did we even have to come with you then?"

Ofdensen paused for a moment, "I figured you might want some say in the matter... It is your band after all. I thought you might help decide who to hire... If we find a guy who you all hate, maybe you wouldn't want to hire him..."

"Why would it matter if we hate 'im?" Pickles asked.

"Yeah," Nathan agreed, "I mean... we all hate each other, right guys?"

Pickles and Murderface both nodded.

Ofdensen sighed, "if you want to go back to the states, I can arrange it, but try not to waste too much money. You've all got quite a sum of cash from previous bands, but if you're unable to start a new band, the money won't last forever. You're already here, so I'd suggest you just stay."

"Fine," Nathan growled.

"Okay..." Ofdensen started, "Well, I'm going to go around to clubs and ask them if they've had any guitarists who have stood out. Are you guys going to come with me or stay here?"

"Can we drink?" Pickles asked, "ya know... at the clubs? Can we get drunk?"

"Well, it's in the middle of the day..." Ofdensen said hesitantly.

"Sooo... yes?" Pickles continued.

"Actually... I'd rather you not," Ofdensen told him.

"So, yes then?" Pickles persisted.

Ofdensen sighed, "you can drink... just don't over do it."

"Okey then... I'll go with you," Pickles agreed.

"How about you guys?" Ofdensen asked, turning to Nathan and Murderface.

"Uh... Hmmm," Nathan hesitated, "I don't know... how long will you be gone? I mean... I don't want to run around doing that boring stuff all day... Uhhh... No. Well, yeah... No... I don't want to go."

Ofdensen sighed again, "William?"

"Nope," Murderface told him, "I'm schtaying right here...Well... I'll be going to my own room."

"Alright then," Ofdensen agreed, "don't break anything in the rooms."

Ofdensen and Pickles left the hotel and headed toward the first club in the area on Ofdensen's list. It was close to the hotel, so it didn't take long to find it. Pickles immediately started ordering drinks as Ofdensen talked to the manger of the club.

"Hello," he greeted, "I'm Charles Ofdensen, and I am looking for a guitarist to finish a band which I will be managing. Have you had any bands play here, with an exceptional guitarist? I don't just mean good. I mean _exceptional_. And don't feel hesitant to give names. I'm willing to pay you if the guitarist is what we're looking for."

The club's managers eyes shined with the desire to come into the possession of the money, "Oh... surely there was someone... just let me think..."

"Do you think that you could think it over and then give me a call if you think of anyone?" Ofdensen asked, "I'll just give you my card..."

"Sure thing," the man told him, taking the card.

"Thank you," Ofdensen said. He walked over to where Pickles was already on his second drink in the short time it took Ofdensen to talk to the club's manager, "come on, Pickles."

Pickles threw some money onto the table and followed Ofdensen out of the club and back to the car which they had driven in. They drove a few miles to another club, where Ofdensen had a similar conversation with another man, and where Pickles had a few more drinks. After going to three more clubs, Ofdensen was becoming quite sick of the seemingly fruitless search, and Pickles was becoming quite intoxicated.

They were now at the sixth club, "I think maybe you should wait in the car, Pickles," Ofdensen suggested, not wanting him to drink any more than he already had. He didn't want to have to find a new drummer as well.

"Awwwee... I'm fine," Pickles slurred, knowing why Ofdensen hoped he would stay out of the club.

Ofdensen didn't argue. He and Pickles went into the club. Ofdensen expected the conversation to be the same as the previous five, but he was quite pleasantly surprised.

"Actually, there was this band that we had play here all the time up until yesterday," the manager told him, "the band sucked. But the guitarist was really good. He was the only reason we ever kept having them play here. At first the fans didn't notice that the rest of the band sucked, because Skwisgaar's guitar lead almost drowned out the rest of the band, but eventually the other members of the band tried to be heard, and unfortunately, they succeeded, and the fans didn't care for it."

"But the guitarist was very good?" Ofdensen asked, thinking it was too good to be true, "I mean, the best you've ever heard kind of good?"

The manager nodded, "yeah, I'd say he probably was the best. It was hard to tell sometimes over the drums. That guy just didn't know how much he sucked... but he insisted on playing those drums so loud it almost drowned out the lead guitar... It was a real shame..."

"Yes... quite..." Ofdensen agreed, "do you have a number where we could reach him?"

"Yes, sir," the man told him, "well... it's just an address. He wouldn't give a number. Maybe he just didn't want us calling, or maybe he doesn't have a phone. I never asked."

"Alright," Ofdensen agreed, "well, if he turns out to be what we are looking for, we'll gladly pay you."

"Well, thank you," the manager said, "oh, and before you go over there, just be warned that he doesn't speak English all that well, so talk kind of slowly or he might not understand you."

"Alright, thank you," Ofdensen told the manager, and then turning to Pickles again, "come on," he said tiredly, pulling Pickles along behind him. As Ofdensen dragged him away, Pickles threw some money at the counter, to pay for his several drinks. Most of it, coins, scattered all over the counter and floor.

Ofdensen and Pickles made their way to the address. When they arrived, Ofdensen suggested that Pickles stay in the car this time, so this new guy wouldn't be put off by his complete drunkenness.

"If he doesn't like drinkin' he doesn't need ta be in our band, ya know?" Pickles argued, "besides... I wanna talk ta 'im too."

"Very well then," Ofdensen agreed reluctantly. They made their way into the apartment building where Skwisgaar lived, and went up to the correct floor. Ofdensen knocked at the door and waited. After a few moments, the door opened. Skwisgaar, with narrowed eyes, looked at Ofdensen, without speaking.

"Hello," Ofdensen greeted him, "a manager at a club told me that you were very talented on the guitar, and we were wondering if you'd like to audition to be in a new band."

Skwisgaar looked at Ofdensen for a moment longer, as though he was thinking, "you wants me to auditions fors a bands?" he asked finally.

Noticing his accent, Ofdensen remembered what the club manager had said about him not speaking English well, so he talked more slowly this time, "yes," he told him, "would you be interested in being the lead guitarist of a death metal band? That is, if you meet our standards."

"I mights considers it," Skwisgaar told him, "you don'ts gots to worries abouts me meetings _your_ standards. I maybes wonders if you meets _my_ standards, maybes."

"Alright," Ofdensen agreed, "fair enough. Would you like to try our band out with your playing to see if you're a match then?"

Skwisgaar nodded, "okays. But if yous all sucks, den I nots doings it."

"Very well," Ofdensen told him, "are you free right now? The rest of the band is at a hotel, and you could audition right now... and have them audition for you as well."

"Okays," Skwisgaar agreed. He looked at Pickles who had been standing silently beside Ofdensen, "who's is dat?"

"This is Pickles," Ofdensen told him, "he's the drummer... he's been drinking a bit today... so his drumming might be off... but I assure you he is good..."

"Yeah," Pickles agreed, "I'm the... uh... the uh... the drummer. And I 'ave been drinkin... jest a little." he slurred, obvioulsy quite drunk.

"We'll sees," Skwisgaar said.

Skwisgaar took his guitar and followed Ofdensen and Pickles down the stairs and to their car. Though he could have easily been excited at the possibility of finding a band to match his talent, Skwisgaar hardly even expected the band to be half as good as he was. His past experience told him that he might possibly be too talented, and would never find any band mates good enough.

_**xxxxxx**_

_**Eh... This is pretty boring so far... I'm making it up as I go... Hopefully it will get better... I probably won't be updating for a while. Maybe next weekend, but I have a lot of school work, and other stuff that I have to do... so just expect that it might be a little while before I update... if you even care...**_

_**and yes... Toki will be in it later... of course... :)**_

_**Leave me a review, por favor. I really do think it will get better...**_


	2. Toki

_**First off, thank you to those of you who reviewed, charontedemoness, xXJashin-rocksXx, Madame Riverotter, and yourSweetSinner. :) I'm glad you like this so far. **_

_**I wasn't sure if it was a bit too boring at first, but I know at least a few people are reading it. I wasn't sure if I was going to continue writing it at first, but I will now that I know it doesn't completely suck. :)**_

**_And another thing... I sometimes cannot help but to make Toki a sort of main character, because he is the most fun to write about in my opinion, but I'm trying to include all of Dethklok equally... TRYING..._**

_**xxxxxx**_

Toki sighed. He had been kicked out of the public library, again. Every so often, as soon as the librarians would switch shifts, he would sneak into the library, go to the corner furthest from everyone else, and plug in his guitar. He needed to practice somewhere, and not having it plugged in just didn't sound good enough. Within a mere few minutes he would be kicked out, and left to practice in an alley somewhere, with no place to plug the amplifier in.

He didn't really _need_ to practice as much as he simply _wanted_ to. The fact of the matter was that a guitarist couldn't get far without a band. He figured that he would most likely never join a band, and instead practiced for his own amusement. What more could he do? He had run away from his abusive home only four years before, ending up in Sweden, and had since then been living wherever he could without having to pay any fines, as he had no money. The only thing he did have was his guitar. He survived mostly on charitable offers from strangers, of lodging and food, and if no one seemed particularly charitable, he'd be forced to rely on his own thievery.

Toki sighed again and played a series of notes, sounding quite good despite the fact that the amplifier wasn't plugged in. He put the guitar down and slumped down, sitting on the ground with his back against the brick wall of the alley. The sun was going to set within the hour, and he needed to begin thinking about finding somewhere to sleep. He was about to stand when a tall man walked up to him and looked down at him. Toki looked up, raising his eyebrows, wondering what the man wanted.

"I couldn't help but notice you playing in the library a minute ago," the man said, with a tone in his voice which made Toki think he had some sort of sinister plan. Toki wasn't an expert in the English language, but he understood the basic point the man was trying to get across.

"Yes," Toki told him, "I plays in de libraries... what's you wants?"

"Well," the man continued, "I know someone who is looking for a guitarist to play in a band, and you might be good enough."

Toki tried to translate what the man was saying, but he was talking a bit too fast for Toki's limited knowledge of the English language, "yous... Yous has a bands with a guitarists? Whats?"

The man spoke more slowly this time, "Do you want to try out to be in a band?" he asked more simply.

"Be in a bands?" Toki said, more to himself than to the man who was seemingly becoming increasingly aggravated.

"Yes," the man repeated, "do you want to be in a band? Try out for it?"

"Okays," Toki agreed.

"Great," the man said, pulling Toki up by the arm from his sitting position, "come with me." The man dragged Toki along behind him to a club where he seemed to work, because he appeared to know the employees who were currently serving drinks there.

"Sit down right here," the man told Toki, "I'll be right back."

Toki watched as the man took a few steps away from him, to a phone that was on the wall. Toki could hear the man's conversation, so he listened, as he wondered who he was calling and why.

"Hello. Is this Ofdensen?" he asked. There was a pause as though someone on the other line was saying something, but Toki, of course, could only hear one side of the conversation.

"Are you still offering money to whoever finds a guitarist?" he asked, "because I've got one here, and he's pretty good. You can try him out."

Another pause.

"Yes, on 16th street," he said, pausing for a second, "yes, that's the one. You're going to pay me if you end up liking him, right?"

Another pause.

"Good. I'll see you in a few minutes," he said, and hung up the phone.

Though Toki couldn't make out exactly what the man had said, as he was new to the English language, he did get the impression that this man was trying to sell his guitar playing to someone. He didn't quite understand how that would be possible unless he himself was sold, and this made him nervous. He stood up, preparing to leave, but the man who had brought him here noticed and grabbed his arm, pulling him back down into the chair he had been sitting in.

"I changes my minds," Toki told him, "I don'ts needs to be ins a bands... I just goes nows..."

"Oh, no you don't," he argued, "just try them out. You might like it. Who wouldn't want to be in a band? You're pretty good, and I think you know it, so why not put your skills to good use?"

"I don'ts wants to," Toki persisted, trying to pull his arm away from the other man, "I don'ts wants to gets sells. I don'ts belongs to yous, so you cannots sells me!"

"I'm not selling you," the man explained, though in a way he was doing just that. The only reason he cared to help Toki join the band about which he had heard earlier in the day was due to the fact that he knew there was money to be made, "this guy came to me today and told me he was looking for a guitarist to be in a new band, and he said he'd pay me if I found one, but he wouldn't own you or anything..."

"Wills you just lets me goes? I finds a differents bands whats won'ts tries to sells me," Toki said, still not entirely understanding what the other man was saying.

The man who had brought Toki to the club was becoming quite aggravated at Toki's lack of understanding, and was becoming tired of trying to explain the same thing over and over, "you're not going anywhere. You're staying here, and you're going to try out for this band."

Toki tugged at his arm again, trying to get away from the angry club manager, "I don'ts has to!" he urged, "lets goes of me!"

At about this time, Ofdensen arrived, and this time he had brought the rest of Dethklok with him, along with Skwisgaar, whose place in the band was not quite etched in stone, though it was very highly probable that he would be their guitarist.

Ofdensen took note of the struggle between the club's manger whom he had spoken to earlier in the day, and a teen-aged boy with long brown hair. He walked up to the manager and spoke up, "what's the problem here?"

"Dis guys tries to sells me to a bands!" Toki yelled, his wide eyes staring at Ofdensen, "makes him lets me goes! I don'ts wants to be sells!"

"I'm not selling him!" the manager explained to Ofdensen, "I asked him if he wanted to try out for that band you were talking about earlier, and he said yes. He heard me talking to you on the phone and he thinks I'm trying to sell him. I guess the moron doesn't speak English."

"Well... we are in Sweden," Ofdensen defended the boy, "there are a lot of people here who do not speak English," he then turned to Toki, "did you want to try out for this band? We wouldn't own you. You could leave any time you wanted," he looked Toki over. He was quite thin, as though he hadn't eaten in a while. His hair looked as though it hadn't been brushed today, and his shirt was dirty and torn. Though his appearance could be common to any teen-aged boy, it seemed that it was a little too far, and that he probably lived on the streets, "if the band is successful," Ofdensen began, "you'll live in a very nice house with the rest of the band... would you like to audition?"

"I woulds lives at a house?" Toki asked, "with dose guys whats behinds yous rights deres?"

"If you are good enough for the band," Ofdensen said, and then looked down to see that the club manager still had a painfully tight grip on Toki's arm, "could you let go of him now?" he asked, in a tone which sounded more like an order than a request.

The manager released Toki's arm. Toki drew his arm closer to himself and glanced over at the man who had just released him. He made no effort to move though, until Ofdensen spoke again.

"You could try out here, if you'd like, or go back to the hotel with us," he offered.

"Hotels?" Toki asked, "Can I sleeps dere? For frees?"

"Sure," Ofdensen told him, "come along then."

Toki followed Ofdensen and the rest of the band to a limo which they had arrived in. He nervously climbed in with the rest of the band, who were all staring at him. He noticed one member, taller than the others, with blond hair, looked very angry.

"Hellos," he greeted the taller man. He was very nervous. The blond man looked as though he might punch him at any minute. Toki didn't know why, but he looked very angry, "yous mads with mes?" he asked.

"I's betters at guitars den yous," the blond told him.

"Oh," Toki said. Then he felt the urge to argue back, "you knows... you never heards me plays it... de guitars befores... I mights be betters den yous!"

Without warning, the blond lunged at Toki, but instead of making any attempt to fight back, Toki remained completely still. Skwisgaar was planning on punching him, but before he did so, with his fist ready, he noticed just how frightened Toki looked. His eyes were wide, and he was tense, yet he made no effort to move out of Skwisgaar's way. He didn't really feel like hitting him anymore.

Instead of hitting him, Skwisgaar moved back and sat down.

"I like thisch guy," Murderface said, referring to Skwisgaar.

Skwisgaar glared at him.

Toki remained completely still, wondering why Skwisgaar had changed his mind. He wondered if Skwisgaar was going to still hit him, and was just waiting for a different time to do so.

They pulled up at the hotel, and Toki waited for everyone else to climb out of the limo before he did so as well, not wanting to make anyone angry with him. He followed Ofdensen and the band up to a hotel room, where guitars, drums, amplifiers, microphones, sheet music, alcohol, and anything else a band might desire lay about the room.

Toki played his guitar alone, a second time with the accompaniment of Nathan, Murderface, and Pickles, and then a third time with the existing members of Dethklok as well as Skwisgaar. Then, one after the other, Skwisgaar and Toki played the same song, for comparison against each other.

"Skwisgaar and Toki," Ofdensen asked, after they had been playing for quite a while, "could you wait in the hall while I talk to these guys?"

They walked out into the hall. Skwisgaar was completely silent, and still looked angry. The silence was making Toki uncomfortable, as he had lived in unwanted silence for far too long and preferred conversation whenever possible.

"Is yous reallies mads with mes?" Toki asked, "I notices you thinks abouts punches my face in de cars..."

Skwisgaar looked at him, narrowing his eyes, "I was betters den yous in dere. Dey betters not picks yous."

"Picks mes?" Toki asked, as he had been under the impression that Skwisgaar was already a part of the band. He hadn't thought that Skwisgaar, like him, was merely auditioning.

"Ja. Dey won'ts," Skwisgaar told him, "is either yous or me, and in comparisably to me, yous nots goods enoughs," he noticed that Toki looked very disappointed, "yous goods... just nots as goods as me."

"Oh," Toki said, "I guess nots... maybes I shoulds just leaves den... What's dey goings to do to mes since I nots goods enoughs?"

"What's dey goings to do to yous? Nothings probablies... says... you know, 'you sucks... leaves,' somethings likes dat," Skwisgaar told him.

"I guess I just leaves den... If deys goings to makes me leaves anyways," Toki said.

"I guess so..." Skwisgaar agreed, "you might as wells... saves dem de troubles of has to tells you to leaves if yous alreadies gone."

Toki nodded, "thanks yous for nots hittings my face," he said, as he turned and walked down the hallway.

Skwisgaar shook his head and said to himself, "poors kid... Too bads fors him dat I so goods..."

Skwisgaar sat alone in the hall for a few more minutes until Ofdensen opened the door to Nathan's hotel room, "where's Toki?" the manager asked.

"He leaves," Skwisgaar told him.

"What? Why?" Ofdensen asked, looking down the hall, "when did he leave?"

"He leaves because he knows I betters den hims. He goes downs dat ways, abouts a few minutes agos," Skwisgaar informed him, as he pointed in the direction that Toki had gone.

Ofdensen sighed, "wait here," he instructed Skwisgaar, "I'm going to go try to find him."

Skwisgaar was quite confused. Did this mean that they were choosing Toki over him? He played better than Toki... Why would they choose him? Skwisgaar frowned and walked into the hotel room where Murderface, Pickles, and Nathan were sitting, drinking.

"Ams you guys goings to picks dat kids overs me?!" he yelled, his voice showing his anger, "he sucks in comparisablies to me! You cannots picks hims!"

"We're not," Pickles told him, "Ofdensen had an idea. Ya know how yer both good, right? Well, yer better, but Toki's still pretty good. He thinks that we could use both of ya. You could be the lead er whatever, an' Toki could be the... uh... whatever the other thing is called... rhythm."

"Oh," Skwigaar calmed down, "well... I tells him to leaves because you nots picks him... he leaves. Dat managers guys or whatevers goes to finds him."

"I honeschtly don't know if having him in the band isch schuch a good idea," Murderface said, "He looksch like he'sch like twelve yearsch old... and he'sch all weird..."

"Is he really?" Nathan asked, "I wasn't really paying attention to anything that just happened... was that guy only twelve years old? Why would Ofdensen even have a twelve year old try out? Isn't there a law that twelve year olds can't be in bands?"

"I don't think so, Nate'n," Pickles told him, "I think ya can be in a band no matter how old ya are. Maybe ya just gotta be careful if yer twelve so ya don't get too drunk, 'cause if yer in a band, yer gonna be drinkin, and they probably don't want twelve year olds drinkin."

"You guys," Skwisgaar said, "I don'ts thinks he ams twelves. He's youngs, buts not dat youngs."

Ofdensen opened the hotel room and looked at Skwisgaar, "did you tell him to leave? What did you say to him?"

"Nothings," Skwisgaar lied, not feeling like repeating his conversation and having to explain himself, "Don'ts worries. You finds him, and ifs nots... well... we don'ts needs him anyways, rights?"

"No," Ofdensen told him, looking quite angry, "we don't _need_ him, but the band would _definitely_ be better with him. It would work without him, but it would be better with him. And additionally, didn't any of you notice that he seemed to be homeless? He couldn't have been out of high school, and he's living in the streets. Not only would it make your band better, but hiring him would save him from having to live on the streets."

"That's brutal," Nathan commented, "maybe you should go and... like find him... or something."

"I'm going to contact the owner of the club where we met him, but something tells me that Toki didn't even know that man. I think he just referred him to us for the money; Toki probably won't be going back there," Ofdensen explained.

"Why don't we all go out lookin' fer 'im?" Pickles suggested.

"You can if you want, but I'd advise you not to go alone. Maybe you could all go together, or in groups of two," Ofdensen told him, "keep track of where you are, and keep your cell phones turned on."

"I don'ts has a cells phones," Skwisgaar told him.

Ofdensen sighed, "stay with someone who does have a cell phone..."

Ofdensen went toward the club where he had met with Toki initially, while Skwisgaar and Pickles paired up to search for him, and Murderface and Nathan went to search in the opposite direction. Ofdensen didn't expect any of the band mates to be successful in finding him, but he thought he might as well take advantage of their desire to help.

**_xxxxxx_**

**_Reviews, por favour. :)_**

**_I'm going to try to put more Nathan and Murderface in the next chapter, since neither of them has played a very big role in this so far. :)_**


	3. Looking for Toki

**_Okay. First off, thank you to YourSweetSinner, Madame RiverOtter, charontedemoness, Catspook, Ending Howard, Wild Okapi, and Madame RiverOtter(again) for reviewing. :) This story has a lot more reviews than I thought it would. Maybe that's just because there is a Metalocalypse category now, so people can finally actually find my stories. :)_**

**_I'm not sure if this chapter is as good as the previous two, but hopefully it's good enough... _**

**_Here goes:_**

**_xxxxxx_**

Nathan and Muderface walked down the sidewalk, silently. Ofdensen had told them to pair off and search for Toki. Skwisgaar had gone with Pickles, and Murderface and Nathan had gone together, even though none of the band mates knew each other very well, nor did they seem to particularly like each other.

"Where the hell are we schupposched to look for thisch kid?" Murderface complained, "I've never been to Schwitzerland... I don't even know where we are! How are we schupposched to know where to look?"

"Sweden," Nathan corrected, "I think we're in Sweden."

"That'sch what I schaid!" Murderface defended himself, "jeeze..."

Nathan frowned at him, "No you didn't," he muttered under his breath.

"What wasch that?" Murderface asked, as he knew Nathan had said something, but couldn't quite hear what it was.

"Nothing," Nathan told him, "alright... let's look for this guy then, okay? How 'bout... uh... in here," he suggested, pointing to the building they were standing next to on the sidewalk.

"That'sch a reschtaurant, ischn't it?" Murderface asked, "It looksch like one. I doubt if a homelessch kid would be in a reschtaurant, schince he doeschn't have any money..."

"I don't care," Nathan said, "if he's not in there, we'll just stay in there. I'm starting to get hungry... Wait... did you bring money with you?"

"Uh... Even if I did, why would I give it to you?" Murderface asked, "Juscht becausche we work together doeschn't mean I'm paying for schtuff for you."

Nathan sighed angrily, "did you bring money or not?" he asked, raising his voice, "I'll pay you back."

"Oh," Murderface said, "I guessch if you were going to pay me back, I'd loan you money. You know, if I brought money with me."

"So you didn't bring any?" Nathan asked, still sounding frustrated.

"No," Murderface finally answered the initial question.

"What are we going to do then?" Nathan sighed, "I don't want to walk all the way back to the hotel... We could steal a car..."

"Why don't we call Ofdenschen?" Murderface suggested.

Nathan took out his cell phone and simply looked at if for a few minutes, pushed a button, shook his head, looked at it some more, and then looked at Murderface, "I don't think I know his number..." he finally said.

"Well," Murderface suggested, "why don't you look on your contactsch lischt? He'sch probably on there."

"How do I get to the contacts list?" Nathan asked, more to himself than to Murderface, as he pressed random buttons on the phone. Though he had a cell phone, he rarely used it, and didn't really know how to work the various features.

Murderface looked over Nathan's shoulder, trying to explain what he himself was unsure of, "it's probably under schome schort of category... try going to 'tools' and... aww... uh... schomething..." he continued to try to tell Nathan what to do as Nathan pushed various buttons, "click on that right there... no... go back."

"Why don't you just go... over there," Nathan said, pointing away from himself, as he was beginning to get tired of Murderface trying to explain what he didn't even understand, "for a minute... just go over there."

"Over where?" Murderface asked, looking at Nathan's phone still, "try that thing on the side. Push that, and see-"

"Just go over there," Nathan told him again, "just get away from me a little bit."

"Hey," Murderface said to himself as he took a step away from Nathan, "maybe I've got hisch number in my phone."

Murderface took out his phone, and looked at it, pressing various buttons until he seemed to have reached his destination, to the contacts list, "I don't have any contactsch lischted," Murderface noted, "Hey Nathan... you wanna be on my contactsch lischt?"

"No," Nathan replied, his voice sounding frustrated as he tried to decipher the way to the contacts list on his phone, "Screw this!" he yelled, throwing the phone against the brick wall of the building they were standing beside. The phone broke.

"Scho... you wanna juscht walk back?" Murderface suggested.

"Yeah," Nathan agreed, "we're not that far away from the hotel anyway... We came from that way, right?" he asked, pointing in the direction from which he believed they had come.

"Probably," Murderface agreed, "or schomething..."

They began walking, turning every now and again, as they didn't know where they were going, but each pretended to, hoping they would end up in the right place by chance eventually. After walking for some time, they were both quite certain they were lost.

Nathan sighed a very long and loud sigh, "Maybe we should ask people where we are... Hey, you!" he yelled, grabbing a nearby man by the collar, "where are we? How do we get to the hotel?"

"What hotel?" the man asked, looking quite frightened.

"_The_ hotel," Nathan told him, "the one where we were staying... I don't know what it's called..."

"Well," the man said, seemingly still worried for his life, "I don't really know... There's a hotel that direction. I'm not really from here, so I don't know where each and every one of the hotels are..."

"Fine," Nathan growled, releasing his hold, "hey! Before you go... have you seen some kid, who's like homeless, and probably has a guitar with him... he's got long hair..."

The man shook his head, "sorry... I haven't," the man quickly walked away from Nathan and Murderface.

"Great..." Nathan sighed, "I'll ask someone else," he grabbed another man in a similar fashion, "Do you know where a hotel is?"

The man stared at him as though he was confused. He didn't say anything, but shook his head.

"How about a homeless kid?" Nathan asked, becoming impatient.

The man shook his head again. Nathan released him.

"I don't know if that guy even knew how to schpeak Englisch. He didn't look like he underschtood you," Murderface commented.

Nathan sighed loudly, "I don't think any of these jack offs know anything about this place..."

"Yeah," Murderface agreed, "they live here... and yet, they don't know where anything isch... Schurely they've notisched schome homelessch kid walking around, right? Idiotsch..."

"Yeah..." Nathan said, though he hadn't been listening to Murderface, "let's just keep walking. We'll run into the hotel eventually... or at least maybe we'll find... uh... Pickles or that other guy... or whatever."

They both continued walking down the sidewalks, wondering how much longer they would be forced to endure each other's company.

**_xxxxxx_**

Toki walked down the sidewalk, looking down at his feet as he walked. Nothing ever turned out right for him. The one time he thought he had a chance to escape his miserable life, and to move on to have a house and money, he wasn't good enough. Why did he even bother practicing the guitar at all? He still wasn't good enough, so clearly practicing did no good.

Toki walked by the library where he had been earlier. It was night time now, and the library would be closing soon. Toki had nowhere to sleep, but a sudden thought arose in his head: perhaps he could sneak into the library, and hide somewhere until everyone left for the night. Then he could sleep on one of the cushioned chairs. He had slept on the chairs during the day, but the librarian would always ask him to leave when she saw that he was in the library only so he could sleep there.

He walked into the library and looked at the clock. The library would be closing in about fifteen minutes.

"Excuse me, young man," Toki heard a voice. It was the librarian, "the library is closing in fifteen minutes, so you might want to make it quick."

Toki nodded, "I looks around and goes out de others doors if I don'ts finds anythings..." he told her, so she wouldn't be keeping track of whether or not he had left the library at closing time.

"The back door is already locked," she countered, as though she knew his plan and wished to make it impossible.

Toki frowned. He knew this wasn't going to be easy, if it was even possible at all to elude this woman. He could tell that she knew exactly what he was planning, probably because she had to deal with him practically every day. Toki decided to just be honest with her, "Ams you thinks I cans sleeps in heres?" he asked.

The librarian narrowed her eyes, "Can you sleep in here? Of course not! I'm sorry, but I cannot just let people stay in the library after it closes. Why don't you go find a hotel?"

"I don'ts has monies," Toki told her.

The woman sighed, "I'm not going to let you sleep in the library. I'm sorry."

Toki frowned and walked back out of the door he had come in and sat down in the alley where he had been earlier in the day. This wouldn't be the first night he had to sleep outside. He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered, sitting down and leaning his back against the alley-wall. He closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep.

It seemed as though he might have nodded off, but Toki couldn't be quite sure. Whether he had been asleep or not, he couldn't quite say, but he did know that there was now someone standing in front of him, looking down at him.

Toki simply blinked, without saying anything, looking up at the face which was not visible in the night shadows of the alley.

"What are you doing here?" a voice which seemed familiar asked.

Toki blinked again, trying to see the face of the person who was speaking to him, "I's sleepings..." he responded.

"No," the voice started sounding more angry, "I mean, why aren't you with that band? I've heard you play your guitar, so I know you're good enough. What? Did you mess up on purpose just so I wouldn't get the money for finding you?"

Toki now knew who was standing in front of him. It was the man from the club, who had offered to get him an audition with Dethklok, and he seemed very angry that Toki hadn't been good enough, "I plays as goods as I cans," Toki told him, "Dere was anothers guys dere, whats was betters."

"Come with me," the man said, grabbing Toki's arm and pulling him up roughly, "I'm going to have a word with that guy. You have a phone?"

The man was speaking a bit too quickly again, so Toki was having trouble knowing exactly what he had said, "Whats?" he asked.

"Do you have a phone?" the man repeated, more loudly and with a pause between each word.

Toki shook his head.

"Well... we'll just go back to the club and call Ofdensen then. I'm not letting him screw me over like this," the man muttered.

Toki was still unsure of what this man had to do with anything, but he guessed that he was angry, because, for some reason, the fact that Toki hadn't been good enough for Dethklok was making him lose money, "I nots goods enoughs," Toki protested, trying to pull his arm out of the man's grasp, "just don'ts even bothers. I not goods enoughs..."

"You are good enough. I'm going to get my money at any rate. That jerk probably didn't hire you just because he didn't want to pay me," the man ranted.

"Why don'ts you just calls hims, and leaves me alones den... Yous guys can settles it. You don'ts needs me to be heres," Toki suggested, finally succeeding in pulling his arm out of the man's grasp.

The club owner turned back to Toki, and was just about to grab his arm again, when Toki took a step back, out of his reach, "you're coming with me," he growled.

"No," Toki said, shaking his head.

The man frowned, and lunged at Toki, causing both of them to end up on the sidewalk. Toki, who hadn't eaten all day, or much of anything for quite a while, was physically weaker than the other man, was therefore unable to overpower him, though he did manage a few punches, as hard as he could, at the man's face. Within a few moments, Toki found himself pinned against the cold sidewalk, with a very angry looking man staring down at him.

The man raised his hand, and was just about ready to hit Toki. Toki closed his eyes, but the impact of the expected punch never came. He felt the man pulled off of him. Toki opened his eyes and scrambled back to his feet, as, to his surprise, he saw that the blond man who had been his competition earlier was now here, pulling the club owner away from him.

"What's do you thinks you's doings!?" Skwisgaar yelled at the older man.

"It's none of your business!" the man retorted, "this young man and I were having a disagreement. Just be on your way, and we'll settle it."

Toki's eyes were wide, as he looked from Skwisgaar to the club owner, hoping that Skwisgaar would not decide to leave him here with the frightening and violent man.

"Its is veries our business. Dis guys is parts of our bands, and we not has you beatings him ups," Skwisgaar informed him. Toki looked very confused. Was Skwisgaar just saying that to prevent the man from hitting him? Or was he really going to be part of the band?

Toki was startled when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Pickles standing behind him, and he looked quite drunk.

"Weee found ya!" Pickles slurred, "I knew we would... Whet are ya doin' all the way down here? Yer really fast at walkin' I guess... Where are we?"

Toki looked at Pickles for a minute and then looked back at Skwisgaar who had a hold of the club owner's shirt. The owner of the club looked very angry.

"So he's already in your band?" he asked.

"Ja," Skwisgaar said, his tone indicating that he thought this man was an idiot.

"I'm getting paid then, right?" he asked.

Skwisgaar narrowed his eyes, "I's not goings to pays yous... What's you talkings about?"

"That guy, Ofdensen, he said he'd pay me if I found a guitarist for your band, and I did," the man explained.

"Yous wills haves to talks to hims abouts dat. Gives him a calls. I don'ts cares. We has to goes..." Skwisgaar told him, releasing his hold on the man's shirt. He walked over to Toki and Pickles who were standing side by side, "where we goes now?"

"We could go get drunk," Pickles suggested.

"Yous already drunks," Toki pointed out.

"We could get more drunk then?" Pickles offered.

Toki nodded as Skwisgaar added, "Ja. Dat sounds likes what we shoulds do."

The three of them headed toward the nearest bar.

**_xxxxxx_**

**_Sorry it took me so long to update. I've got a lot of stuff for school going on right now. I will keep updating though. I promise. :)_**


	4. Getting Drunk

**_Thank you to everyone who is reading and reviewing... and those who are reading and not reviewing... but especially those who ARE reviewing. :)_**

**_Here's the next chapter... hopefully you'll like it:_**

**_xxxxxx_**

Skwisgaar had lead Toki and Pickles to a pub which he seemed to frequent. Toki noticed that Skwisgaar seemed to know the bartender. The three of them sat down and ordered drinks.

"How olds is yous?" Skwisgaar asked Toki only after he had already started drinking, "you don'ts looks eighteen..."

"I nots," Toki said. He picked up the shot glass that had just been placed before him and swallowed it's contents, "I's am sixteens years olds... but dis guys doesn't seems to cares... he didn'ts asks me fors a IDs so I guess it doesn't matters... I don'ts has any IDs anyways. I don't has anythings but my guitars."

Pickles didn't appear to have been listening to their conversation, but apparently he had caught on to the fact that Toki was only sixteen years old, "So yer really jest a kid then?" Pickles asked, sounding quite surprised, "I can't ever really tell how old people are... but I thought ya were at least old enough to drink..."

Toki shook his head, "nots legallies... but I cans drinks if de guys whats sells de drinks doesn't cares how olds I ams," Toki turned away from Pickles and ordered another drink, "I don't has any moneys," he whispered to Skwisgaar, "so I goings to has to runs aways after I dones drinkings heres... I can'ts pays for dis."

"I don'ts has any money eithers," Skwisgaar told him, "I know dis guys. Dats why he doesn't asks you fors a IDs. He won'ts makes us pays, and he doesn't cares dat you not olds enoughs to drinks."

The three of them sat in silence for a few seconds, "So... I noticed ya guys talk weird... like, ya put an 's' at the end of words an' stuff..." Pickles remarked.

"We froms Swedens... not wheres ever yous from," Skwisgaar told him, "We not goods at English, just hows you probablies not goods with Swedish language."

"Actuallies," Toki added, "I's from Norways. I just comes heres not veries longs agos."

"Do you still live with yer parents?" Pickles asked, preparing to make fun of Toki, though he knew that it was quite normal for sixteen year olds to live with their parents.

Toki shook his head, "I runs aways from dat a long times agos..." Toki ordered another drink. He was becoming quite drunk, quite fast.

"Maybes you pace yourself a littles bit?" Skwisgaar suggested, "I don't wants you to be throwings up everywheres..."

"I's fine," Toki assured him.

"Whet do ya mean?" Pickles asked Toki, referring to the fact that he had run away from home, "yer only sixteen... how could ya have run away from yer parents _a long time ago_?"

"I leaves when I was twelves," Toki told him, "Dat was four years agos, and dat's a long times agos for me."

"So ya have been livin' by yerself since ya were twelve?!" Pickles asked, "whet did yer parents do that was so bad? I mean, yeah, families are annoying, but I didn't even think of leavin' my house when I was that young."

Toki stared down at his drink, without saying anything.

Pickles cleared his throat, "Why did ya run away?" he asked again.

Toki blinked and shook his head, as if waking up from a day dream, "nothings... I don't wants to talks abouts it."

Pickles nodded. He sensed that Toki hadn't had an easy life, and had he been less drunk, he may have been able to make an educated guess at what exactly had happened that Toki didn't wish to speak of. He decided to change the subject, "so whet about you?" he asked, looking at Skwisgaar, "ya live with yer parents?"

"Pft," Skwisgaar scoffed, "of course nots. I leaves my mom's house whens I was sixteens. She's a sluts."

Pickles nodded, "did she and yer dad get divorced then... she cheated on him?" he guessed.

"She cheats on everyones in de worlds. She never gots marrieds to any of dem... or maybes she dids... nots likes I woulds be surprised. I don'ts knows who my fathers is," Skwisgaar explained, "my mothers is such a sluts. She's dirties whores dat couldn'ts even tells me whats my fathers is. I ams surprised I don'ts gots millions of brothers and sisters, cause she's such a sluts... I probablies do, but she nevers tells me... I wouldn'ts be surprised."

Pickles sighed. These two were making his family seem like the most normal psychologically sound family ever to have existed. He had thought he had a difficult family, but compared to these two, his family was quite normal.

"Okay..." Pickles finally said, "so yer like... how old?"

"I's twenty-twos," Skwisgaar told him, "What's abouts yous?"

"Awww... I'm pretty old compared to you guys," Pickles said, "I'm twenty-eight. At least I'm not the oldest in the band though, right? I'm pretty sure Murderface is older."

Skwisgaar shrugged, "Ja..." he looked over to Toki who was no longer paying attention to their conversation. Instead, he was ordering drink after drink, even though he was already quite intoxicated.

"I hope this guy doesn't drink like this all the time," Pickles remarked, "I don't want 'im stealin' all of my booze."

Pickles and Skwisgaar turned around when they heard Ofdensen's voice, "there you guys are!" he called over to them, "I see you've found Toki. Do you have any idea where Murderface and Nathan are?"

Pickles and Skwisgaar shook their heads, while Toki seemed unaware that Ofdensen was even there.

"I'll give them a call," Ofdensen informed them. Though neither Nathan nor Murderface had his number, he did have each of their's. Ofdensen dialed Nathan's number first, but the phone seemed to be turned off, as his call was immediately taken to voice mail. He then tried Murderface's number. While it was ringing, he looked over at Toki, "I think you guys should try to get him to stop drinking. Take him over there to that table."

"Comes on, Tokis," Skwisgaar said, pulling Toki away from the bar, "you's a littles too drunks." Skwisgaar, Pickles, and Toki made their way to a table in the corner while Ofdensen followed, waiting for Muderface to answer.

"Hello, Murderface. This is Ofdensen. Where are you guys?" he said into the phone. He paused as Murderface answered. Then he looked around the pub, "so are we... We're in the corner. I don't see you guys..." He paused again, "Well, come out of the back room and meet us at the corner table. I'm sure you'll be able to find us," another pause, "okay. Bye."

Ofdensen looked over at Toki, who looked like he was about to pass out, "Toki?"

Toki looked up at him, trying to focus on Ofdensen, "Yeah?" Toki asked, his eyes still not focusing.

Ofdensen felt it was probably useless to talk to Toki right now, as he would likely not remember any of what he said, but decided to talk to him anyway, "Did Skwisgaar and Pickles tell you that we've decided to include you in the band?"

Toki didn't respond. He looked at Ofdensen, still not focusing, though he seemed to be trying.

"Well, we'd like to offer you the position of rhythm guitarist. We think you'd be well suited," Ofdensen continued, "...I guess I'll repeat all of this once you're sober."

"I guessch you found that homelessch kid," Murderface commented as he walked up to their table and sat down.

"Yeah," Nathan remarked, "why were we looking for him again?"

"He's going to be the rhythm guitarist for Dethklok," Ofdensen replied.

Nathan nodded, sitting down next to Toki and looking at him. He smirked, looking back at Ofdensen, "he's so drunk right now," he laughed.

"Yes," Ofdensen agreed, "yes, he is. But that isn't funny, Nathan. He's very drunk, and he isn't legally old enough," Ofdensen looked over at Skwisgaar and Pickles, "it was irresponsible of you two to allow him to drink."

Pickles was almost as drunk as Toki, and wasn't listening to Ofdensen. Skwisgaar, who had only had a few drinks looked at Ofdensen for a moment, "okays..." he said.

Ofdensen sighed, and looked at Toki again, "I think it's time we get back to the hotel. Would you like a room there?" he asked Toki, "I'll pay for it."

Toki nodded, "yeah," he quietly answered, slumping forward. Nathan grabbed his arm and pulled him back against the seat so he wouldn't smack his head against the table.

"Well," Murderface interrupted, "I'm not going back to the hotel yet. It juscht got dark and I'm not at all drunk right now... Juscht wait about fifteen minutesch scho I can have a few drinksch."

Nathan nodded, "yeah. I need a few drinks too."

"Fine," Ofdensen agreed, "we can stay for fifteen more minutes, but that's it, and don't drink too much."

Murderface stood up to go order drinks, "just get me whatever you're getting," Nathan called over to him, "I don't feel like standing up and walking over there."

Murderface scowled at him, but obeyed. He came back a few minutes later with three drinks, "I got one for the homelessch kid too," Muderface snickered, pushing the drink toward Toki.

Toki looked down at the drink, a shot of vodka, and picked it up. Before Ofdensen could snatch it way, he drank it. Ofdensen frowned at Murderface, "Try to refrain from getting him this drunk in the future. It's unhealthy, and he's already more drunk than anyone ever should be."

"Aww... but it's scho funny!" Murderface exclaimed, "he looks like he's going to passch out any schecond now... no one elsche is scho funny to get drunk. We're all too usched to drinking, scho we aren't asch funny."

"I don't see anything funny about it," Ofdensen told him, "you're just making him sick, and I don't see how you expect your band to go very far if you're going to cause liver failure and alcohol poisoning to all of your band members. Furthermore, there is nothing at all funny about getting a sixteen year old so drunk that he is about to pass out."

Nathan looked down as Toki fell against his shoulder. He pushed Toki away from himself, against Skwisgaar, who was sitting on the other side of the youngest band member.

"Yous guys readies to goes back to da hotels yets?" Skwisgaar asked. He had an apartment, but if he could get these guys to pay for a hotel room, that would definitely beat staying at his cheap apartment.

"Yeah," Nathan agreed, "I've got booze at the hotel, so I'm ready to go."

"Me too," Murderface offered.

"Alright then," Ofdensen said, "let's go."

They walked out to the limo which they had been using to get around the town. Skwisgaar and Ofdensen led Toki to the vehicle, as he was so intoxicated that it was difficult for him to walk. Pickles, though quite drunk, made his way to the limo on his own, as he had a higher tolerance for alcohol, and it didn't effect him nearly as much.

When they made it back to the hotel, Murderface, Pickles, and Nathan went up to their rooms, while Skwisgaar and Toki waited downstairs while Ofdensen paid for their lodging.

Skwisgaar was sitting in the lobby, on a couch with Toki who was passed out, laying down beside him. He looked up at Ofdensen as he approached, "Dis guys is goings to be a problems if he always drinks dis much," he told him.

"He shouldn't have been drinking at all," Ofdensen remarked, "don't give him alcohol, and he won't drink so much. I've only ordered one more room, and here's my offer to you," he said, "it's a nice room, and you can either stay in it with Toki and keep an eye on him, or take my room and I'll stay with Toki."

"So you wants me to babys-sits dis guys so he don'ts drowns in his own vomits?" Skwisgaar rephrased the proposal.

Ofdensen nodded, "essentially... or I can stay with him. I just don't want him staying by himself when he has just consumed so much alcohol."

"I stays with hims," Skwisgaar said, surprising Ofdensen with his answer.

"You're not going to just get him more drunk are you?" Ofdensen asked, "because while you think it's funny now, it won't be later."

"No. I makes sure he doesn't drowns in his throws up," Skwisgaar told him. He really wanted to spend more time with Toki. Toki clearly hadn't had an easy life, and Skwisgaar felt that he hadn't either. Everywhere he went, it always seemed like no one around him understood just how horrible someone's family could be. While it seemed like Toki didn't want to talk about his family, Skwisgaar felt that while he was drunk, he might be willing to do so, and Skwisgaar wanted to know what exactly had caused Toki to leave his home when he was only twelve.

"Alright," Ofdensen reluctantly agreed. He hoped that Skwisgaar could be trusted. He handed the blond man the key to the room, "I'll go up there with you."

Skwisgaar and Ofdensen led Toki to the elevator, and then down the hallway to the hotel room. Ofdensen led Toki to one of the beds and he immediately laid down on it.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Ofdensen told Skwisgaar, "keep an eye on him. Don't just go to sleep when I leave."

"Of course I wont's," Skwisgaar assured him, "goods nights."

Skwisgaar closed the door and looked over at Toki. Toki was awake now, but just staring up at the ceiling, "yous okays?" Skwisgaar asked.

"Yeah," Toki told him. He was still drunk, but the alcohol was wearing off.

Skwisgaar felt he should probably try to get Toki to talk now before the alcohol was completely worn off, and his best plan for getting him to talk was to start talking himself first, "you knows... I lives withs my moms untils I was sixteens," he started, "shes was nots a nice mothers."

Toki nodded, "I liveds with my moms toos... and my dads..."

"Ja..." Skwisgaar continued, "shes gets drunks all de times, and sleeps with alls differents mens, whos also gets drunks. Dey woulds gets in fights with me sometimes. Hers boyfriends whats was drunks, dirties gross mens."

Toki didn't say anything.

"You knows... most peoples has goods lifes... yous and I didn'ts," he said, "I tells you abouts my lifes, if yous tells me abouts yours. Dat ways we won'ts feels likes we alones."

Toki nodded, "You goes firsts."

"Hows abouts I answers one questions of yours, and dens you answers ones of mines?" Skwisgaar suggested, "ones at a times."

Toki nodded again, "okays... I don'ts knows whats to asks..."

"I asks firsts den," Skwisgaar offered, "whys you runs aways from yours house?"

Toki frowned. He didn't like talking about this stuff, but he was much more open to talking since he was drunk. Still, it bothered him to speak of it, so he remained vague, "my parents weres means to me."

"Whats did dey do?" Skwisgaar asked.

"I don'ts knows if alls kids is supposed to do lots of works and gets hits all de times, but I don'ts likes it, so I leaves. Maybes I was supposeds to stays, but I can'ts ever tells whats dey wanteds me to do... I tries to do whats dey says, but dey always mads at me, and always punishes me..." Toki told him, sounding like he might cry. He hadn't answered the question clearly, but Skwisgaar could guess at least, based on the information Toki provided, what his parents had done. It was Toki's turn to ask a question now, but it didn't seem like he was going to, so Skwisgaar simply started talking.

"My mothers always hads a differents mans overs each nights, and dey weren'ts usuallies means to me untils I gots olders... but den sometimes dey woulds hits me when my moms was asleeps... and when I tells her, she doesn't cares," Skwisgaar told Toki.

"I wonders sometimes..." Toki began, "I wonders if all families is likes dat... means to de kids."

Skwisgaar shook his head, "no, not alls families is likes dat, Toki," he told him, "yous and I just unluckies. We has crappy parents. But we don'ts has to worries abouts it no mores. We heres nows, and goings to be in dis bands. We gots a new families now, de bands. We may not likes each others, but dat's better den livings with our others families, hm? At least dis guys won'ts be beatings you ups, hm?"

"Yeah," Toki agreed, his voice quiet.

"Ja," Skwisgaar said, "dis guys likes a families, onlies a betters families, whats doesn't hurts each others. Is likes havings just brothers, with no parents."

"I sometimes wish dat I has a parents who wills helps me, because livings in dis worlds is scaries," Toki said, sounding more and more like he was about to pass out as he spoke. Skwisgaar wondered if Toki would even remember their conversation when he woke up the next morning.

"We all sticks togethers," Skwisgaar told him, "withs de bands, and we helps each others in dis scaries worlds, ja?"

Toki nodded.

"You's okays?" Skwisgaar asked Toki, "you's not goings to throws ups and drowns in it, hm?"

Toki shook his head, "I justs ams tireds," he said, his eyes closed.

"Okays," Skwisgaar told him, "I glads we talks... I sees you tomorrows mornings den."

Skwisgaar stayed up for about a half an hour, making sure Toki didn't drown in his own vomit, but after that short amount of time, which seemed long for Skwisgaar, who was simply sitting and staring at Toki, he went to bed as well.

**_xxxxxx_**

**_Feel free to leave me a review, and I'll update soon... or sort of soon at least. :) _**

**_If you're wondering where this story is going, I was thinking of just having it be how the band got along when they first came together, leading up to their first concert maybe... or just their first album... I don't know. I'm still not sure. As always, I'm making this up as I go... I know that's a bad idea, because it's good to plan out an ending before you start writing, but this is just an internet fanfiction story... The world won't end if this ends up sucking._**


	5. Passport

**_Hello again. :) Thank you to everyone who is reading and reviewing... Sorry I'm not listing individual names anymore, but I'm getting a little lazy in that respect... I hope no one minds._**

**_xxxxxx_**

The morning after his night of relatively light drinking, Nathan woke up. Actually, it couldn't fairly be called morning, since it was almost 1:00PM, but it seemed early to him at least. He hadn't had much to drink the previous night, so unlike Pickles and Toki, he had no chance of having a hang-over. Nevertheless, he may have slept even later yet had there not come a knock to his hotel room door.

"Come in," he called out, not wanting to get out of bed to open the door himself.

"I don't have a key, Nathan," he heard Ofdensen's voice on the other side of the door, "these hotel rooms lock automatically, and I need a key to open the door," he explained.

Nathan sighed and dragged himself out of bed. He went over to the door and opened it.

"Did you sleep well?" Ofdensen asked.

Nathan narrowed his eyes, "uh... yeah... I guess so... What do you want?"

"Well, I thought I'd ask you, Murderface, and Pickles to come to a short meeting in the hotel lobby, so all three of you could make sure you agree that you want to have Skwisgaar and Toki in the band," Ofdensen told Nathan, "Murderface and Pickles are already down stairs, and I'd hurry if I was you, because Pickles is already drinking, and I'd like to get this meeting done before he is completely drunk."

Nathan sighed again, "fine," he agreed, not sounding the least bit enthused. He followed Ofdensen down to the lobby and sat down at a table where Murderface and Pickles already had been sitting.

"So..." Nathan began, "you wanna keep those new guys? Uh... Toki and... uh... Skwi... Skwiskal?"

"It's Skwisgaar," Ofdensen interrupted, "his name is Skwisgaar."

"Whatever... you guys like them?" Nathan asked again, looking to Murderface and Pickles.

"Yeah... well... I think they are alright... I guessch," Murderface said, "they're kind of weird though... schaying schtuff all weird... It's juscht weird how they talk... not really like kidsch, but juscht schaying wordsch wrong, and out of order... and schaying the wrong wordsch... They might be idiotsch or schomething..."

"Yeah," Pickles agreed, "they told me that it's because they don't speak English... like very well... because they're from Sweden... and tha other one's from Norway... Yeah. Toki said he's from Norway... So... anyway, that's why... I think... why they talk all like... weird an' ya know... whatever."

Ofdensen simply sat back and listened to their conversation. He didn't want to interrupt unless he had to. He was fairly certain that these three would be okay with Skwisgaar and Toki joining the band, but if they had some excuse to not include them, he would have to convince them otherwise.

"It'sch not juscht the way they talk though," Murderface continued, "they just act all weird... Like the homelessch kid one, he'sch like twelve, right, and he got completely trashed the firscht chance he got!"

"Well..." Pickles cut in, "... is that really a bad thing? Getting trashed... ya know... is cool..."

"Yeah," Nathan agreed, "it's pretty metal. He almost passed out right there at the table, and that's like... hilarious... I say we keep him in the band for sure... you know... like, even if he sucks at everything else... At least he'll get drunk all the time and be funny."

"I think him an' Skwisgaar are like... psychologically damaged though," Pickles added, "they both act like they could snap at any second, ya know? An' like... kill someone. I think they both had parents who didn't really take care of 'em right, ya know? At the bar, Toki said he ran away from home when he was like twelve, and Skwisgaar said he did when he was sixteen."

"Uh huh..." Nathan began, followed by a short pause as he looked like he was thinking, "Well... first off, having band members who might potentially snap and kill someone is totally metal... so I don't think that's going to be an issue... but I think we need to have an agreement here, which we also need to discuss with Skwisgaar and Toki later: We need to never take a personal interest in each other's lives, okay? It's totally not metal to care about each other," he said, looking at Pickles who had seemed just a moment ago to take a sort of interest in the lives of their two newest band members.

Pickles nodded, "Yeah... yer right, Nate'n... Sorry about that..."

Murderface nodded as well, "you don't have to tell me twiche. I don't care about thosche new guysch... or you guysch either."

"Good," Nathan agreed, "so we all agree then... to uh... keep those new guys then?"

"Yep," Pickles and Murderface said simultaneously.

"Alright then," Ofdensen stepped in, "you've all been in bands before, and I believe Skwisgaar has as well, but you might want to let Toki know what's going on sometimes, because I don't think he's been in a band before. You should all meet up and discuss songs and whatnot so we can get you publicized as soon as possible. We'll be going back to the states, boarding the plane tomorrow morning, at 8:30."

"Eight-thirty!?" Pickles exclaimed, "that's like... oh man... that's waaay too early."

"You can sleep on the plane," Ofdensen offered, "I'd advise you to get together with Skwisgaar and Toki sometime soon, just so you're all on the same page about all of your goals and ideas."

"Why don't you go get thosche homelessch kidsch then, and we'll talk to them," Murderface suggested.

Ofdensen frowned slightly and sighed, noticing that Murderface was purposely refraining from using the names of his new band mates, "you know, you should all try to respect one another and get along..." Murderface simply looked at him as though he was speaking a foreign language, "...by knowing each other's names... and _not_ getting the sixteen year-old completely drunk..."

Murderface remained silent for a few seconds, "...scho... are you going to go get them then?"

Ofdensen stood, "I'll be right back."

Murderface, Pickles, and Nathan stayed sitting at the table in the hotel lobby while Ofdensen went upstairs to retrieve Skwisgaar and Toki.

"It was scho funny getting Toki completely waschted lascht night," Murderface commented.

"Yeah," Nathan agreed, "I haven't seen anyone react that way to booze since I got my most recent girlfriend completely trashed..."

"It'sch going to be really easchy to make fun of him..." Murderface noted.

"He better not drink like that all tha time though," Pickles warned, "I'm freakin' serious. The first time he steals some 'o my booze, I'm kickin' his ass. I don't care that he's sixteen or whatever; no one's gonna get away with stealin my booze..."

Pickles stopped talking and looked over to see Skwisgaar and Toki walking into the lobby, along with Ofdensen, who again simply stayed silent and listend to the band mates talk. Toki looked quite miserable, as he likely had a massive hang-over, whereas Skwisgaar just looked tired.

"Good morning," Nathan said, really slowly and in a voice different from his usual growling voice, as though he was talking to a small child, as he looked at Toki. Nathan wore a huge grin. He looked as though seeing Toki hung-over was the funniest thing in the world.

"Hi," Toki responded, keeping his voice relatively quiet.

"So... yeah," Pickles started, "Ofdensen... uh, like wanted us to talk to ya guys... ta make sure we're all on tha same page... er whatever."

"Yeah," Nathan said, looking back and forth from Toki to Skwisgaar, "we made up some rules that we need to all follow. Just one rule, but I think you guys will find it agreeable... Uh... Hmm... What was I saying? Oh yeah... Uh, We think it's important... to not show any personal interest in each other's health, emotions, or personal lives... So like... if someone tried to kill you, Skwisgaar, for example, Pickles could try to prevent it... since we need you for the band... But like, if one of us felt sad for some reason... the rest of us don't care, so don't even try to get us involved. You both can agree with that, right?"

Though Toki hadn't understood exactly what Nathan had just said, since he used a few words Toki did not know in English, he didn't really care, and quickly agreed, "yeah... I can deals with dat," he said, laying his head down on the table. He wanted to get this meeting over as quickly as possible, so he could go back to sleep.

Skwisgaar, however, also not fully understanding the rule, asked questions, "So... you ams say dat we don'ts cares abouts each others, unless we needs each others?"

"Yeah," Murderface told him, "pretty much. Like... we don't care about each othersch problemsch, but if it'sch going to affect our schales in any way, like if one of usch is going to die... we can try to intervene, juscht scho we can keep making money... you schee what I mean?"

"Ja," Skwisgaar agreed, "Dat seems for to make sense."

"Okay..." Nathan took the lead of the conversation again, "so we can all agree on that. Is there anything else you guys need to say? I mean... is it okay with all of you if we go do our own things now? Like... away from each other..."

"Fine by me," Murderface agreed, as Skwisgaar and Pickles nodded in approval, while Toki kept his head down on the table, not responding.

Nathan looked at Toki for a moment, waiting for a reply, but after a few seconds, it was clear that Toki hadn't been listening, "Okay then... I'm going to go then..." Nathan finally said, getting up from the table and walking back up to his room.

Pickles and Murderface also left the lobby, while Charles, Skwisgaar, and Toki remained sitting at the table.

"Yous needs me for to babys-sits for hims agains?" Skwisgaar asked Ofdensen, gesturing toward Toki.

"No," Ofdensen replied, "I have some things I need to go over with Toki, so you can go and do whatever you need to do. We are going back to the states tomorrow morning at 8:30. I assume you have a passport?"

"Passport?" Skwisgaar looked confused, "whats am for I needs to use a passport?"

"You need a passport to leave the country. You don't have one?" Ofdensen asked.

Skwisgaar shook his head, "Umm... No..." he said, looking confused still.

"Alright then, you need to come with me," Ofdensen told him, "I'm taking Toki to get a passport, and to do other necessary things... You can come along with us and get a passport as well."

At this point, Toki raised his head from the table, "Ams we have to goes nows?" he complained, "I wants to sleeps fors de rest of de days. I has a huge headaches pains."

"We'll get you some coffee," Ofdensen said simply, "you'll be fine. You'll start feeling better as the day progresses, and there are some things we absolutely need to do before we can leave to go back to the states."

Toki frowned, but did as Ofdensen instructed. He and Skwisgaar followed Ofdensen outside to the car Ofdensen had been using previously. At this time, Ofdensen drove the vehicle rather than having someone else hired to do so.

Toki immediately laid down in the back seat, while Skwisgaar sat in front, in the passenger seat. Ofdensen drove for a while until they reached a part of town where Skwisgaar had never been before, except for one time, years ago. There were very few people around, and Skwisgaar knew that this part of the town was a common place for people to buy and sell illegal drugs and fake IDs. Skwisgaar had come here once, when he was seventeen to get a fake ID so he could drink in pubs, but he had never come back after that one time. He looked over at Ofdensen.

"Ams you goings to buys drugs?" he asked, suddenly thinking more highly of his new band manager.

Ofdensen looked over at him while he parked the car in the alley, "No," he said, his voice remaining steady, "Toki," he called back. Toki sat up in the seat, looking tired, "I need you to come with me."

Toki looked out the window. He had been here before. Toki had only been in Sweden for less than a year, but he had come here a few times in the past. He had somehow come into the possession of heroin, and had come here to sell it so he could afford a place to sleep and something to eat. It wasn't a pleasant memory, as he was only fifteen at the time, and adult drug addicts with tempers and knives were not a good match for Toki, a rather small and thin teenager. Toki looked up at Ofdensen, looking extremely nervous.

"Whats fors?" he asked, his voice very quiet.

"I'm going to need you to pose as my son, so we can get you out of the country. Since you don't have a passport, and are only sixteen, I cannot simply have you board the plane with us without permission from your parents, which I'm pretty sure you're not going to be able to get. So we are going to go over here and make you an ID, and some legal papers claiming that you are my son, so we can get you a passport and get you out of the country without anyone protesting. I'd just make your ID saying that you're eighteen, but you really don't look it, and I don't want any suspicions from anyone," Ofdensen explained, in a voice as clear as he could, to ensure that Toki was able to understand what he was saying. He saw that Toki was extremely nervous about being here, and he looked scared, "you'll be fine," he assured him, "I just need to have you here so they can take your picture for an ID."

"But whats if dey finds outs we's lyings?" Toki's small voice asked.

"It doesn't matter. These people know we're lying. They create fake legal documents all the time," Ofdensen explained, "and the people at the airport will not be able to tell the difference between these documents and legitimate ones."

This did not give Toki any more reassurance, and he remained sitting in the back seat, watching the few people who roamed about in the alley. Many of the shady-looking men were wearing hoods covering their faces, some talking quietly, and some most definitely carrying concealed weapons.

"I assure you everything will be fine," Ofdensen said again, "Skwisgaar and I will not let anything happen to you."

Skwisgaar looked at Ofdensen, and then back at Toki. Skwisgaar remembered what Nathan had said about not showing personal interest in each other's problems, and Toki clearly had a problem with being here. He was afraid, just like anyone probably would be, since it was not a very safe place to be. Skwisgaar knew that the rest of his band wouldn't want him trying to comfort Toki, but maybe this fell under the exception to their rule. If he didn't go with Toki and Ofdensen, and didn't assure Toki that everything would be fine, maybe Toki wouldn't go at all, and then couldn't be a part of their band, and that would definitely affect their sales, so he supposed that it wouldn't be against Nathan's rule to be nice to Toki this one time.

"Ja," Skwisgaar agreed, "We both goes with yous... and if anyones tries anythings, I beats dem ups. I makes sure nothings happens bad, because remembers befores? Dat guy whats was goings to hits yous, and I comes and not lets hims? Hm? Remembers dat?"

Toki nodded.

"Well, I makes sure no ones ever does anythings bads to yous, so you don'ts has to worries, hm?" Skwisgaar continued.

Ofdensen narrowed his eyes, looking at Skwisgaar, "What guy was going to hit him?" he asked.

"Oh, some guys whats wanteds us to pays him... Says he needs for to gets pays rewards for findings Tokis to be in dis bands. I tells him I nots payings hims, but he can calls you," Skwisgaar explained.

Ofdensen nodded, "well... I'll have a word with him later," he turned back to Toki, "are you ready to go then? The sooner we go and get this done, the sooner you can go back to the hotel and go to sleep."

Toki nodded reluctantly, still looking more scared than Skwisgaar felt he should.

The three of them stepped out of the car. Skwisgaar and Toki followed Ofdensen into a door within the alley, down some stairs, and into a dimly lit room which smelled of cigar smoke. Toki remained very close to Skwisgaar.

Ofdensen walked up to a desk, behind which sat a man who looked very much like someone who might be seen robbing a bank, or committing a murder.

The man looked at Ofdensen suspiciously. Ofdensen was wearing a suit and tie, not exactly looking like someone who would need any sort of fake documentation. He then looked back at Skwisgaar and Toki, who looked a lot more like potential customers, "can I help you guys?" he finally asked, looking back to Ofdensen.

"Toki," Ofdensen called over his shoulder. Toki walked up beside Ofdensen, keeping his eyes on the ground, "this is Toki Ofdensen, and we need papers for him, including a social security card, passport, and visa. That won't be a problem, will it?"

The man at the desk noticed that Ofdensen didn't seem to be trying to set him up, as he would have most likely phrased the question differently had he been wearing a wire and working with the cops. Nevertheless, he needed to be on the safe side, "would you two mind waiting outside? I don't like having more than one person in my office at once. I'll only need Toki to be in here."

Toki looked very nervously at Skwisgaar and then Ofdensen.

Ofdensen narrowed his eyes, "what do you need to do that you cannot allow us to be here for?"

"Like I said, I cannot have so many people in my office at one time... for security reasons," the man said, looking at Ofdensen and choosing his words carefully. He knew he couldn't get in trouble for simply asking if someone was wearing a wire, so he decided to tell Ofdensen his reasoning at least to a certain degree, so if he really wasn't a cop or working with the cops, he would understand his motives, "are any of you wearing a wire?" he finally asked.

Skwisgaar shook his head, while Ofdensen answered, "of course not. But we would really appreciate it if you would allow all of us to stay while you create the papers."

The man was beginning to get aggravated, "you have to understand that the business I run is one in which I cannot take risks. So you two leave, or I'm not making any papers."

Ofdensen looked at Toki, who looked very frightened, "we'll be right outside," he assured him, as though Toki really was his own son, "if anything happens," he whispered so only Toki could hear, "just yell. We'll be in here right away. Come on Skwisgaar."

Toki watched as Skwisgaar and Ofdensen left, and then he turned back toward the desk.

"You wearing a wire?" the man asked him.

Toki looked confused, "No... I just wearings clothings..."

The man at the desk narrowed his eyes. This kid clearly didn't know what he was talking about. He probably didn't know what the term 'wire' referred to. It was not unheard of for some of the more selfish cops to use kids like this, planting a wire on them and having them go into places like this in order to dig up dirt on drug dealers or people who make fake legal documents.

"Do you mind if I have my friend double check? Just for necessary precaution..." the man asked, indicating another man who had been standing quietly in the dark corner of the room. Toki hadn't noticed him until just now.

"I don'ts understands," Toki finally admitted, "what's you checks fors? Whys it matters if I wears on me a wires?"

"I'm just going to have my friend here check, okay? If you aren't wearing one, everything will be fine," the man smiled, though the smile didn't exactly look genuine.

Toki nodded, "okays..." Toki held his breath as the tall muscular man who had been standing in the corner approached him, and patted down his torso and legs, making sure there was no recording device concealed under Toki's clothing. When the man didn't seem to find what he was looking for, he walked back into the corner. Toki remained still.

"Good," the man at the desk said, noting that his 'friend' hadn't come up with anything, "now, I need you to stand right over here," he said, leading Toki in front of a white piece of paper taped to the wall, "I'm going to take your picture... so you don't have to smile, but just look how you want to look in your passport photo."

Toki didn't smile. In fact, his face showed no emotion whatsoever.

"Alright then," the man began, after having taken Toki's photo, "Toki Ofdensen... How is that spelled?"

Toki looked down at his feet, "T-O-K-I," he said, spelling out his first name.

"Okay... and Ofdensen? How is that spelled?" he asked.

Toki shrugged his shoulders. He didn't know how to spell Ofdensen, "Um... O... F... um... D... I... M... Ofdem... Oftem... um... Oftemsen... No... cross outs de first thing whats I say... is O... F... T... E... I...M... N... S... I... N... E..?"

The man looked at Toki as though he was seconds from either laughing at him, or yelling at him. Instead, he did neither, standing from the desk, while Toki backed up. The man walked around the desk. As he drew closer to Toki, he held his breath, but the man walked passed him and outside where Ofdensen and Skwisgaar had gone.

Now Toki was alone with only the man in the corner who hadn't said anything. Toki looked up at the man, who he noticed was also looking at him, "Hi," Toki quietly said to the man.

The man made a sort of nodding gesture, but didn't speak.

Toki looked away from him, and back to the door as it opened and the other man walked back in. He went to his computer and typed something, which was probably the correct spelling of 'Ofdensen.'

"Do you have a social security number, or shall I make one up?" the man asked.

"I don'ts know what dat is," Toki told him, as his parents had never reported his existence after he had been born, and no social security number had ever been issued to him.

"Okay..." the man responded, typing more on his computer, "and your parents names?"

Toki looked confused. Why would this man need to know the names of his parents?

"To put on your 'birth certificate,'" the man explained.

Toki remembered that he was supposed to be posing as Ofdensen's son, but he didn't know Ofdensen's first name. He didn't remember if his new manager had ever told him his first name or not, so he simply gave the man a blank stare. Again, the man walked around the desk and outside, this time staying gone longer, probably getting more questions answered so he wouldn't have to go back outside again in a mere few seconds.

Toki stood silently for a moment, simply staring down at his feet, waiting on the man to come back inside the room. Then he looked back at the man standing in the corner, who was still looking at him, "Where's you ams from?" Toki asked the man, trying to make conversation to end the awkward silence in the room.

The man shook his head, "none of your business," he answered.

Toki frowned. The man could have at least lied if he hadn't wanted Toki to know where he was from. He didn't have to be rude about it. Toki looked away from the man in the corner, "jerk," Toki muttered quietly to himself.

The man in the corner walked over to Toki, who was beginning to regret his last comment. He didn't know the man could hear him from over there, "what did you say?" the man asked, sounding angry.

Toki shook his head, "nothings..." he answered.

"Didn't sound like nothing," the man argued, "if you have something to say to me, then say it."

Toki's eyes were very wide. He wondered if the other man would come back soon, and get this man to not kill him... or maybe he should yell to Skwisgaar and Ofdensen... "I don'ts has anythings to says," Toki said. Then he felt like he was being a coward, and being a push over seemed even worse than having a giant man angry with him, "'cept dat yous a jerks."

The taller man glared down at Toki, and looked like he was about to do something when the other man walked back into the room.

"Is there a problem?" the man asked his 'friend.'

"Nothing I can't settle later," the man told him, returning to the corner.

The man at the desk typed some more things and then printed them, stamping a few of them and signing names to some of them. He handed the papers to Toki, "Alright then," he said, "Your 'father' already paid for these, so we're done."

"Okays..." Toki said, "I can goes now den?" he asked.

"Yep," the man at the desk told him, and then added sarcastically, "it's been a pleasure doing business with you."

"Okays den," Toki agreed, "I leaves den. Byes."

Toki looked down at the papers as he walked to the door. It seemed Ofdensen had gone ahead and had the man make a fake passport for Skwisgaar as well, using a photo which had seemingly already somehow been on the man's computer. Toki walked outside where Ofdensen and Skwisgaar stood. He handed the papers to Ofdensen.

The three began walking back toward their car, but Toki stopped when he heard the door they had walked out of a few seconds earlier swing open and the man who had been standing in the corner walked out of it.

Ofdensen and Skwisgaar turned around as well, looking to see what was going on.

"I'm not going to have some kid tell me off and then just leave," the man said.

Toki looked scared, but made no effort to move out of the man's way.

"Hold these," Ofdensen said, quickly handing the papers to Skwisgaar and walking up beside Toki. He looked up at the man who was approaching, who was much larger than himself, "What's your problem, sir?" Ofdensen asked the angry-looking man.

"None of your business," the man responded, taking a knife out of his pocket.

Toki remained still, not knowing what he should do. He looked over to Ofdensen, who surprisingly drew a knife as well.

Ofdensen looked threateningly at the taller man, "what do you say? Can we agree to disagree? Or do we need to settle this in a way which will result in fatal injury?"

"Fine," the man gave in, "just keep that kid out of here, because if I see him around here again, I'm gonna give him what he's asking for."

Ofdensen narrowed his eyes, waiting for the other man to turn around before he turned around as well. They walked back to their car. As Toki climbed into the back seat and Skwisgaar began walking around the back of the car to the passenger side, neither of them noticed the man with the knife quickly and quietly approaching Ofdensen. No one but Ofdensen noticed anyway. He quickly spun around, right before the larger man was about to stab him, Ofdensen kicked him hard enough to knock him to the ground. Ofdensen, without a word, got into the car, started the engine, and drove away from the ally. Toki and Skwisgaar looked at each other, and then at Ofdensen. They were both silently glad that he was on their side.

Toki, Skwisgaar, and Ofdensen remained silent on the trip back to the hotel. Toki had fallen asleep again, in the back seat, and Skwisgaar simply didn't know what to say to Ofdensen, who had just displayed a very talented martial arts move. Skwisgaar had assumed that Ofdensen was simply some business man, but he clearly knew what he was doing, and was not going to let anyone stand in his way or allow anyone in any way to slow his progress.

When they got back to the hotel, and before they got out of the car, Ofdensen turned toward Skwisgaar, "did you need to pack any luggage from your apartment?" he asked.

Skwisgaar thought about that for a moment. He didn't really have many personal belongings. He shook his head, "I already gots my guitars with mes in de hotels... is in Nathan's rooms, I thinks... I don'ts has reallies anythings else in my apartments 'cepts fors a few shirts and stuffs. I just wears dis same shirts fors a whiles, and buys a new ones laters."

"Alright then," Ofdensen said, "and did you want me to get you a separate room from Toki's for tonight? Since he's not drunk, he doesn't need anyone watching over him really, so you don't have to share a room with him anymore."

"Okays..." Skwisgaar said, "maybes gets me rooms right besides hims."

Ofdensen nodded. He could tell that Skwisgaar wanted to keep an eye on Toki. Even if he would not really come out and say it, and would probably even end up being mean to Toki in front of the rest of the band. Ofdensen could see that Skwisgaar saw that Toki was just a teenager, and needed a bit of guidance. He needed someone to watch over him, and for a long time, no one had been fulfilling this need. Ofdensen, of course, would not hesitate to make sure that each of the five members of Dethklok remained relatively happy and healthy, but he knew that Toki would require more supervision than the rest of the band. Even though they were all irresponsible and acted like teenagers, Toki actually _was_ a teenager, and clearly had a troubled past. Skwisgaar also seemed to have a somewhat troubled past. He may have been not so different from Toki just a few years ago, and Ofdensen was glad that they would have each other, instead of living in the states, without each other, each alone, with no one who understood them.

"I'll arrange to have your room next to his," Ofdensen agreed.

Skwisgaar looked back at Toki, who was asleep in the back seat of the car, "Tokis!" Skwisgaar yelled back at him.

Toki jumped at Skwisgaar's yell, and sat up.

"We's am backs at de hotels... so gets up," Skwisgaar told him, "and don'ts do no mores drinkings tonights, hm?"

Toki nodded, "okays," he agreed, getting out of the car and following Skwisgaar and Ofdensen into the hotel building.

Toki walked up to his room, while Skwisgaar stayed downstairs while Ofdensen paid for his room. Ofdensen then gave Skwisgaar the key to his room and the two parted from each other. Though it was still only mid-afternoon, each of the band mates only wanted to be lazy. They each stayed in their own rooms for a while, sleeping, drinking, or watching the television.

_**xxxxxx**_

_**Well... That chapter was longer than I meant for it to be... typed out on the OpenOffice program, it's ten and a half pages... Wow-wee... ;) So... There's probably only going to be one or two more chapters, because it's getting to the point where they are going to go back to the states and just be present day Dethklok... so there won't be too much else to say... But in the last chapter or two, maybe I'll have some stuff where the band sort of gets to know each other and whatnot... Maybe get a little of the Skwisgaar being sort of mean to Toki in there, just because he feels he has to, even though he doesn't really mean it... :) We'll see...**_

_**I know I haven't really had much of Nathan, Murderface, and Pickles in this story... I mean, I have, but their roles aren't nearly as big as Toki's and Skwisgaar's... I just don't have much to say about the other three... I love them... but Toki and Skwisgaar are just much more fun to write about. :) I've been trying to include everyone equally... but I think Toki won the title of "main character" in this one... **_

_**Don't forget though... this isn't over yet!! I'll be writing more!! So don't fret. Leave me a review, because I love them... and I'll update this again soon, hopefully within the next week, but I cannot make any promises, as school, school, school is consuming my life. :)**_


	6. Mordhaus

**_Good day. Thank you to everyone who has been reading and reviewing. I'm glad that you are all being patient. Normally I update my stories really quickly, but with this one, I'm taking more time on each chapter, typing it a little at a time so I can get homework done. I think doing it this way is making my chapters longer though, so that's a plus. :)_**

**_Anyway, this chapter might seem a little boring, since there aren't any huge conflicts, but I thought it might be interesting to just see a little bit of the early interaction between the band mates before they knew each other very well. And again, sorry for just focusing mostly on Toki..._**

**_Well... here goes:_**

**_xxxxxx_**

For the entirety of the rest of the day after Ofdensen had taken Toki and Skwisgaar to get their passports, each band member had decided to just be lazy in his own room. Skwisgaar and Toki had already seen enough of Sweden, as they had each lived there, and did not have pleasant experiences doing so, whereas Nathan and Murderface simply didn't care about the fact that they were over-seas in a foreign country, and Pickles remained completely drunk throughout most of the time he spent awake, and could never care less where he was.

Early the next morning, Ofdensen managed to convince each of the boys to wake up early enough to make it to the airport on time, and they had all boarded the plane without difficulty. Toki's and Skwisgaar's passports were not suspected to be fake, and there was no issue getting everything to work out exactly how Charles had planned.

While they waited for the last passengers to board, so they could take off, the band mates took their seats. In a row of three seats sat Murferface, Pickles, and Nathan. Across the aisle sat Ofdensen, Toki, and Skwisgaar. Presently, Toki was looking around the plane curiously, as he had likely never been on a plane before. Ofdensen suspected Skwisgaar hadn't either, but the blond didn't seem at all interested, and rather sat back in the seat, looking bored and tired.

While keeping an eye on Dethklok's youngest band mate, Ofdensen noticed Toki's expression of curiosity was slowly turning into an expression of nervousness and even dread.

"What's wrong?" he whispered quietly to Toki, ensuring that none of the other band members would hear their conversation and attempt to poke any fun at the teenager's uneasiness about being on a plane for the first time.

Toki simply shook his head, without answering the question.

Instead of asking again, Ofdensen decided to simply give some reassurance to the possibility that Toki was nervous about being on the plane, "airplanes are very safe," he commented casually, "in fact, since there aren't numerous other planes along the same path of any given plane, you would be more likely to die from riding in a car than in an airplane; cars are very much more likely to crash."

Toki narrowed his eyes as though his manager was talking about something completely irrelevant, "okays..." he said, with a hint of confusion in his voice.

"There's no reason to be scared," Ofdensen told him.

Toki shook his head again, "I nots."

Ofdensen assumed he just wanted to look as strong as the other band members, "alright then," he ceased pressing the matter.

Toki looked to his other side, where Skwisgaar appeared to be asleep, and then he turned back to Ofdensen, "Wheres are we goings?" he asked.

Ofdensen frowned. Had he not told Toki where they were headed? "We're going back to the states," he said, and then explained further, "over the ocean, to the United States of America. I think you'll like it there. The drinking age is twenty-one though, so you'll want to refrain from drinking, as you should have done here as well..."

Toki shook his head, "no. Is okays. I hardlies ever drinks anyways."

"That's good," Ofdensen told him, "drinking is a bad habit. It's unhealthy, and one who drinks doesn't accomplish anything other than making a fool of himself."

"Okays... Whats we do whens we gets over deres... at dem states?" Toki asked.

"Well, if it's okay with you," Ofdensen began, "you could live with the rest of the band. Of course, you can have separate houses if you'd like, but I think it would be easier for everyone if you all live in the same house, while I manage your finances, so you don't have to worry about paying any bills. You guys are good, and that's no exaggeration. You're very talented, Toki. I don't know if anyone has ever told you, but if not, it's a compliment which is long overdue. I'm very certain that money will not be an issue."

"So... I don'ts gots to do anythings 'cepts plays de guitars?" Toki asked.

Ofdensen nodded, "pretty much. People will pay to see your concerts, and to buy your albums. Pickles, Nathan, and Murderface have all been in fairly successful bands in the past, so publicity shouldn't be difficult at all. You'll just need to play different songs, practice, of course, for concerts, maybe sign some endorsement deals if you'd like."

"_Endo... endorsalments_?" Toki mispronounced the word, "what means endorsalmentals?"

"An endorsement is when you agree to have your name, picture, band name, band logo, or anything which you have copy written, on a product, where you will either be paid a certain amount by the company or a certain percentage of their sales will go to you," Ofdensen explained.

"Whatevers," Toki gave up, clearly confused and no longer willing to take the time to listen to learn anything new.

Ofdensen smiled. Toki was very different from the older band members, but he definitely had something in common with them: that he didn't care about much of anything that would involve work.

Most of the passengers on the plane had taken their seats, and the plane was due to take off soon.

"I thinks I just goes to sleeps," Toki said to Ofdensen, "wakes me up whens we gets to dem states."

"Okay," Ofdensen told him. Toki acted like the flight would only take twenty minutes. Toki would surely have already woken up before they landed, but Ofdensen felt no need to explain this to him.

_**xxxxxx**_

When the band arrived in the states, Ofdensen took them to Morhaus, a large building which contained so many rooms it could hardly be considered a house at all, but almost like a miniature town, with it's own hospital, large kitchen, countless rooms, including bedrooms, several large meeting rooms, many empty rooms which the band could choose what to do with, a helicopter pad, and even dungeons. To Toki, it looked much more like a castle than a house, but Ofdensen told him that it was his new home, and he was not about to complain. There were men dressed in black with hoods covering their faces. At first Toki thought they might be burglars, but none of the other band mates or Ofdensen seemed to be worried about them, so Toki decided they must have been there for a reason, and with permission.

Apparently Nathan, Murderface, and Pickles had already been living here prior to going to Sweden, as they immediately each went their own separate ways, while Skwisgaar and Toki remained next to Ofdensen, unsure where they should go in the massive house.

"There are many empty rooms," Ofdensen told them, "you can choose which room you want to be your bedroom. A few of them already have beds, but they are just twin sized beds. You can use them if you want, or we could easily buy a new one, but if we special order it, you might have to wait a few days."

Ofdensen led them to a hallway, "Nathan's room is at the end of this hallway, and Murdeface's room is right here," he said, pointing to a closed door, "I'd advise you to never go in there without asking him first. And Pickles' room is just a little bit down the hall, between Nathan's and Murderface's. Pretty much all of the rooms in this hallway could be converted into bedrooms if they aren't already, so just choose whichever one, and if there are boxes or something in your way, I can have some employees come and move them for you. Oh, yes, that reminds me, the men wearing black are the Dethklok employees. They will help you with any work needed to be done around the house."

"Likes servants?" Skwisgaar asked.

"Yes," Ofdensen answered, "pretty much. Well, you boys go ahead and look around, and if you have any questions, I'll be all the way down this hall, and then all the way down the hall to the left of the end of this one, in the last room."

Ofdensen left, and Toki and Skwisgaar stood for a moment, without speaking or moving, until Skwisgaar turned and walked down the hallway, looking into various rooms, while Toki walked in the opposite direction, doing the same.

The first door Toki opened revealed tons of boxes. He didn't want to try to see what the room looked like, so he closed the door and walked to the next. This room looked very dark, and had a twin sized bed in it. It was a relatively small room, but Toki didn't want a big room anyway. His only possessions were all within his guitar case, so it wasn't like he would need a lot of space. Besides the bed and a small table and chair, the room was empty, so it would require no work, which Toki liked, even though he wouldn't have been the one to have to do the work anyway.

Toki walked into the room and put his guitar case, which he had been carrying with him, on the bed. He sat down and looked around the nearly empty room. He didn't know what to do now.

"Ams you just give up on finding a rooms den?" he heard Skwisgaar's voice as the other guitarist walked into the room.

Toki shook his head, "no. I decides dat I wants dis rooms."

Skwisgaar took a quick glance around the room, narrowed his eyes, looked around the room again, and then back at Toki, "you knows... dere's betters rooms down de others ways. I thinks you lookings in closets or somethings... I mean, dis rooms woulds be okays if dis was a normals house, but dere's lots biggers rooms den dis."

Toki frowned, "I likes dis ones."

"Okays den..." Skwisgaar agreed, looking down at Toki as though he was a tiny child who had no idea what he was talking about, "you probablies change your mind laters."

"What's you wants to do nows?" Toki asked. He wasn't used to having much of a choice in what he was going to do with his free time. Usually he would focus all of his time on trying to survive rather than actually choosing to do something for fun.

"I'm goings to goes to sleeps," Skwisgaar told him, "you sleeps on most of de planes rides, but I stays awakes, so I'm goings to goes tell Ofdensens dat I needs to orders a betters beds. You wants for to comes withs me? You needs a betters beds too."

"Okay," Toki said, standing up. He followed Skwisgaar down the hallway, and then down the next hallway to the room where Ofdensen said he would be. Skwisgaar knocked in the door, as it was closed.

"Come in," Ofdensen called to him. Skwisgaar and Toki walked into the room, "Did you two choose your rooms?"

"Ja," Skwisgaar said, "We needs betters beds."

"I figured you would," Ofdensen told him, "we can go to various stores if you'd like, or we could look online. If you don't find anything you like, we could even have one custom made for you."

"I know exactly whats kinds of beds I wants, I draws what it looks likes, and yous can trys finds it or has someones makes it," Skwisgaar said, already taking advantage of the amount of choices he was suddenly getting regarding his living situations.

"Very well," Ofdensen agreed. Skwisgaar took a piece of paper out of the printer in the room and started drawing on it, while Ofdensen turned to Toki, "What about you, Toki? Do you have anything specific in mind?"

Toki shook his head, "I just keeps de bed whats in dere, but I haves a questions. I don't gots nothings to do. Is borings in heres. Whats shoulds I do?"

"Well," Ofdensen began, "there are televisions in the other room. Or if you'd rather do something else, we could always go shopping or shop online for other things that you could do for fun. There's a video game in the main room. It's Murderface's, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you used it."

"What's kinds of video games?" Toki asked, seemingly intrigued.

"Well, I don't know what it's called, but it's something where you steer a wheel chair through traffic or something along those lines. I haven't really paid much attention," Ofdensen admitted.

"Dat sounds borings," Toki told him.

"Well, we could order different video games," Ofdensen suggested.

"Whats other kinds are deres?" Toki asked.

"Well, there are numerous different kinds," Ofdensen told him, "I don't play video games, so I cannot think of any, but you can look through online catalogs or go shopping in stores if you'd like."

"Okays," Toki agreed, "I goes shoppings den."

"Would you like to go now, or would you rather go tomorrow?" Ofdensen asked.

"We can goes now," Skwisgaar answered for him, "I has to go buys clothings anyways, so I goes with hims. Just tells us wheres is de stores, and gives to us some moneys."

Ofdensen smiled slightly at the thought of simply handing over a large sum of cash to the two foreign young men, "I'll go with you. I wouldn't want you getting lost."

Skwisgaar laid his drawing of a bed on Ofdensen's desk, "Okays den. Let's goes."

_**xxxxxx**_

When they arrived at the mall, Skwisgaar and Toki went to a few different stores to buy clothing. They didn't seem to care what the clothing looked like to much of an extent, but each seemed to favour a particular style.

In between clothing stores, Toki spotted a toy store. He didn't say anything, but simply stopped in front of it, staring as though he was a child who wanted something he knew he couldn't have.

"Do you want to go into that store?" Ofdensen asked him. He wouldn't have ordinarily thought that a sixteen year old would want to go into a toy store, but then again sixteen year old boys are not the most mature people on the earth, so he thought Toki probably wanted some sort of destructive toy.

Toki hesitated, looking around as though he was making sure no one he knew saw him. Ofdensen was confused by this, since Toki didn't know anyone in this country. So who was he making sure didn't see him? "I probablies shouldn'ts..." Toki said quietly.

Ofdensen frowned. Maybe Toki's parents had never allowed him to go into toy stores, so he thought he shouldn't go into this one, "if you want to go into the store, you can. You can buy whatever you want. I'm not your parent, and no one here is. No one is going to tell you what you can and cannot buy."

Toki nodded, "okays."

"Pfft, I wills be in dat stores over dere," Skwisgaar said, gesuring to another store, "I not goes in kids stores."

"Alright," Ofdensen told him, "We'll meet you over there in a few minutes." He walked into the store after Toki. Toki didn't take interest in most of the items in the store, until they made it to the crafts section.

"What's dis?" Toki asked, picking up a box which read on the front _'Build Your Own Model Air Plane!'_

"It's a model plane," Ofdensen explained. He had put a few together when he was younger, but it hadn't ever interested him much, so he only ever made a few, "there are pieces of a toy plane in the box, as well as glue and paint, and instructions on how to assemble it to look like the picture on the front."

"Ohhh," Toki said, turning the box over and attempting to read the back. He slowly put the box back on the shelf, keeping his hand on it for a few seconds after it was securely back on the shelf. He dropped his hand back to his side, and then looked back at the box. He looked at it for a few seconds, and then reached up and picked it back up, "Dis what I wants," he told Ofdensen.

"Alright then," Ofdensen smiled. Toki was certainly much more easy to please than the other band mates. Murderface wanted expensive weapons and games; Pickles wanted tons of alcohol, which could also be pricey. Ofdensen paid for the model plane and handed the bag to Toki.

They walked across to the next store where Skwisgaar was talking to a woman who looked like she was about sixty years old. If Ofdensen didn't know any better, he would have thought he was flirting with her. He assumed it was just because he was new to the English language.

_**xxxxxx**_

Upon returning back to Mordhaus, Skwisgaar immediately went to his room and fell asleep on the twin sized bed which was already in it. Ofdenden had ordered a bed for him, but it would take a day or two before it could be delivered.

Toki went to his room and put the model air plane box on the table in his room. He didn't want to put it together just yet. He figured he'd save it for a time when he was really bored. Instead, he decided to take his other possessions out of his guitar case and organize them within the room.

The first thing he took out of the guitar case, of course, was his guitar. He leaned it carefully against the wall and took the few remaining items out of the case. One of said items was a teddy bear with a demon tail. Toki smiled and placed it on his pillow. Deddy Bear had been a friend to him when he was a child. He had to hide the bear from his parents or they would have surely taken it away, but now, it could lay in open view on his bed, and Toki would never have to fear that it would be taken away.

Toki looked down at the last two items in his guitar case. They were two photographs, laying face down. He would need some tape to put them on his wall.

Toki walked out of his room and down the halls to what he thought was Ofdensen's office. He knocked on the door.

"Come in," he heard Ofdensen's voice.

Toki opened the door and walked into the room, sitting down in a chair, while Ofdensen remained sitting in a chair on the opposite side of his desk.

They sat silently for a moment. Ofdensen finally spoke, "did you need something, Toki?" he asked.

Toki nodded, "Yeah... do yous has any tapes? Likes de sticky kinds whats you tapes stuffs to de walls withs?"

Ofdensen nodded, "I sure do," he said, opening a drawer and taking out a roll of scotch tape. He handed the tape to Toki, "What do you need tape for?"

"Fors hang up a pictures in my walls," Toki answered, "I gives dis backs laters," he said, but didn't stand and leave. Instead he stayed sitting in the chair, not saying anything.

Ofdensen couldn't help but notice that Toki was acting very strange, "Did you want to talk about something?" he asked, wondering why Toki was simply sitting in his office without saying anything, seemingly with no reason at all for being there.

"No," Toki said. He looked at Ofdensen for a moment, and then stood up and left the room, leaving Ofdensen wondering what Toki had been thinking during the encounter.

Toki walked back to his room and put the tape down on the table. He picked up the first picture, turning it over so he could see it. He then turned it back over and picked up the other one. This was a picture of his mother. Her emotionless eyes stared back at him from the photograph. Toki looked at it for a moment, remembering various times when she had hit him. He frowned and taped the picture onto the wall. Toki wondered if all mothers were like his own, or if other children had mothers who would hug them and make them feel important. He picked up the first photograph again, keeping it facing down. He breathed in and then turned the photograph over, revealing the face of his father staring at him, with the same cold emotionless eyes.

Toki wondered why he should put the pictures on his wall at all. He didn't know why he was doing it, but he felt some sort of obligation for some reason. Just seeing his father's cold eyes staring at him, even in the form of a photograph made him shudder, but he needed to keep his picture, and that of his mother where he could see them. No matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn't pin-point exactly why he felt so obligated to do so.

He continued to stare at the photograph, while he continued also to think. He had come so far from where he had been just four years ago. He was so glad that he had managed to escape the house of his parents. He couldn't imagine having to go through the last four years the same as the twelve years before he ran away. He couldn't remember how his parents had treated him when he was a tiny baby, and he couldn't say for sure, but it seemed like they were becoming more and more cruel to him as he got older. He shuddered to think what would have become of him if he had stayed. Still staring down at the photograph, he frowned. He hoped his father wasn't too angry with him for leaving... What if he and his mother came looking for him? What would they do if they found him?

"Hey... whet are ya doin?" Toki jumped as he heard the voice of the drummer, and turned toward the hall to see Pickles standing in his door way. Toki blinked, but didn't say anything, "Are ya listenin' ta me? I've been tryin' ta talk to ya fer a few minutes, but you just ignored me, er somethin."

Toki blinked again, "I's just puttings somes things... tapings... some things..." he began, looking down at the photo that was still in his hands. He pulled a piece of tape off of the tape roll, stuck it to the top of the photograph, and placed it on the wall next to the picture of his mother. He now had both his mother and father staring at him through the photos.

Pickles looked very confused. He had waited a few seconds for Toki to finish his sentence, but when the young man never did, Pickles shook his head and continued talking, "Okay then..." Pickles didn't really have anything he needed to talk to Toki about. He had simply noticed his door open and wondered why Toki had chosen such a small room out of the wide variety the house had to offer. The boy was definitely strange. Had Pickles been sixteen years old with the opportunity to choose any room he wanted in the large house, he had made sure to take hours exploring the entire house before deciding.

Toki finally seemed to be out of his trance like state, "So... whats you goings to do?" he asked Pickles, hoping maybe the drummer would want to do something with him. He knew Pickles was a bit older than him, but he always found he got along better with people who were older rather than people his own age. He hoped Pickles would be a sort of friend to him. The drummer seemed nice, even though he was constantly intoxicated.

"Uh... I was jest gonna have the chef cook somethin' fer me and maybe just sit around and get drunk an' watch TV an' stuff. Ya know... just hang around," Pickles answered.

"Can I comes withs yous?" Toki asked, much like a child would have asked if he could join in a game with other children at a playground. Pickles found Toki's social awkwardness amusing. Normally, people would just push themselves into such activities, uninvited, but Toki felt the need to actually ask if it was okay with him first.

Pickles laughed, "Yeah... Of course ya can," he said.

Toki smiled, putting the roll of tape back down on his table. Pickles looked around Toki's room, with a look of curiosity, "who are those people in those pictures?" he asked, noticing the two single photographs taped to the otherwise clean walls.

Toki looked uneasy, "Oh... Dems... uh... is my um..." Toki lowered his voice to a whisper, "dey's my parents."

Pickles nodded, "okay," he said simply, noticing how strange Toki was acting. He assumed that talking about his parents was making Toki uncomfortable, yet for some reason the boy had taped the photographs to his wall where he could see the strangely emotionless faces of his parents staring at him each day. He decided not to press the matter further, "Okay then... let's go."

Pickles led the way, as Toki was unfamiliar with the house. He showed Toki a few things along the way, such as a few rooms, and when they reached a window, he pointed out the yard wolves among other things which were outside. They made it to the kitchen, where Pickles told the chef to make him a sandwich, "Whet do ya want, Toki?" he asked, "this guy can make pretty much anything ya want, so don't be shy."

Toki looked as though he was thinking about the offer, "Um... hows abouts maybes...um..."

"Ya just wanna get a sandwich?" Pickles suggested, noticing Toki was having difficulty deciding.

Toki nodded, "okays," he agreed.

"Great," Pickles said, not specifying what kind of a sandwich he wanted. He didn't really care. He liked all sandwiches, "okay then, chef... make us two sandwiches, an' bring 'em to tha main room with all the TVs," he instructed.

Toki followed Pickles again. Pickles went into another kitchen, which had no stoves, but only a refrigerator, microwave, freezer, table, and bar stools.

"There's ice cream and Popsicles an' stuff in tha freezer," Pickles told Toki, "ya can have as many of 'em as ya want. And in here's some alcohol an' other drinks, which ya can also have as many as ya want, but make sure ya never take alcohol that someone tells ya not to. Like there's a refrigerator in my room, and ya never take anything out of it, okay?"

Toki nodded.

"Ya can have whetever ya want from here though, so go ahead," Pickles said, taking a bottle out of the refrigerator for himself and stepping aside.

Toki looked at the contents of the refrigerator. It was primarily alcohol, but there were also a few bottles of water, a half-gallon of milk, and a few cartons of orange juice.

"Ya know how ta mix drinks?" Pickles asked, "I can mix somethin' fer ya if ya want..."

Toki had told Ofdensen that he wouldn't drink any alcohol, but he really didn't want milk, and water seemed so boring compared to the fact that Pickles was mixing orange juice with vodka and putting various other things in the glass as well.

"We got lime and lemon juice," Pickles explained, "an' some coke somewhere... I guess it's not in the fridge... I don't know where it is."

"You can mixes me somethings?" Toki asked.

Pickles nodded, "Yeah. Whet do ya want me to make fer ya?" he asked.

Toki frowned. He didn't know what all of the drinks were called. He shrugged his shoulders.

"I'll just make ya somethin," Pickles offered.

Toki watched as Pickles poured some alcohol into a glass and mixed it with orange juice and lemon juice. He walked over to a cabinet and took out a lemon, cut it up and put it in the drinks he was making for himself and Toki. He then handed Toki one of the drinks.

Toki smiled as he took the drink.

"Okay," Pickles said, leading Toki into the main room where the televisions were.

Toki looked around the room. There were various chairs, numerous televisions hanging from hooks in the walls, a huge hot tub in the center of the floor, and a few video games lining the walls. It was a very large room, and with all of the furniture, it still was not remotely cluttered.

"If ya want another drink, ya can just go in there and get one," Pickles offered, "and if ya don't remember which way ya came from, jest tell me, an' I'll remind ya. Oh yeah... and kind of try an' pace yerself too. Ya know? I mean, don't drink too fast. I know I'm drunk all tha time, but I'm like way older than you and I'm used to it, ya know? It doesn't really affect me that much. If you drink too much though, ya could get sick more easily, since yer jest a kid."

Toki frowned. He didn't think he was really 'just a kid.' He had been living all by himself for four years. He'd like to see a kid do that... Nevertheless, he nodded in agreement, sitting down in one of the chairs.

Pickles turned on one of the televisions. He looked back over to Toki, "don't put too much vodka in yer drinks. Jest a little bit goes a long way... probably fer you anyway. It's easy ta drink too much vodka, so be careful if yer mixin' a drink with vodka in it."

Pickles had purposely put much less alcohol in Toki's drink than in his own. As funny as the guitarist was when he was completely trashed, Pickles didn't want to be responsible for the boy getting really sick. Even though Nathan seemed to want each of them to hate each other, Pickles couldn't just let Toki get drunk to the point where he was passing out and throwing up. Though Pickles was constantly drunk, he felt he might be the most responsible member of this band, which said a lot more about the band as a whole than it did about Pickles. Pickles was not really very responsible at all, but compared to the rest of Dethklok, he probably would be considered the most responsible.

Toki and Pickles sat watching the television for a few hours. As Pickles had suggested, Toki did his best to pace himself, and as Ofdensen had suggested, he tried his best to not become very drunk.

After a while, Murderface joined them, "ya guysch want to get in the hot tub?" he asked.

Pickles looked to Toki, "I will if you will," Pickles said.

Toki looked confused. Was everyone even more drunk than he was? Why did Pickles need _him _to get into the hot tub before he would, "Why do we boths has to?" Toki asked, wondering what was going on.

"Well," Pickles explained, "Murderface has a rule that when he's in tha hot tub, he either has ta be alone, or with more than jest one other guy. He thinks if he's in there with only one other guy, we'll think he's gay... He's really self conscious about that stuff."

Toki smiled, and then started laughing. Murderface frowned and punched Toki's arm. Toki then frowned as well, taking a step back, away from Murderface and rubbing his sore arm, "What's you do thats fors?" Toki asked, his voice sounding like someone who had just been betrayed by a friend.

"You were laughing at me," Murderface explained, "I don't like people making fun of me."

"You makes funs of me!" Toki responded, "Dat times when I was drunks! I remembers. You says I was a homes-less kids, and dat I was reallies drunks..."

"You _were _a homelessch kid... and you were _very... very _drunk," Murderface explained.

Toki continued frowning, "so you makes funs of me, but I don'ts hits you!" he yelled.

"Awww," Pickles interrupted, "he was just kiddin' around, Toki... Right, Murderface?" Pickles looked at Murderface.

"Uh... No. I waschn't juscht kidding around," he argued, "I don't like people laughing at me. And if I schay schomething mean about you, you have permisschion to punch me too," he told Toki, "That'sch what people do."

Toki was silent for a moment, looking like he just might punch Murderface. Instead, he simply pushed Murderface out of his way and stormed out of the room.

Pickles looked at Murderface, "Ya really shouldn't of hit 'im," he said, "he was just laughin' because he thought ya were funny. Ya can't control when people can laugh, Murderface. An' he's jest a kid too, ya know."

"Whatever," Murderface persisted, "I juscht don't like people making fun of me. He hasch to learn one way or the other... and if I have to hit him a few timesch for him to learn not to laugh at me, then that'sch what I'll do."

"I told you that it seemed like his parents didn't take care of 'im very good, right?" Pickles asked, as though Murderface was being completely unreasonable, "he said he ran away from 'is house when he was jest twelve. I think his parents like hit 'im an' stuff... I think ya should really not hit him as a way of teaching 'im, ya know? He's already all weird, and if you treat 'im like that, he'll jest end up bein' more weird."

"Didn't Nathan schay schomething about not caring about each other?" Murderface reminded him, "what hisch life wasch like before he joined the band doeschn't matter at all to me. I don't care what hisch parentsch did to him."

Pickles frowned, "man... yer a dick..."

"Nothing wrong with that," Murderface responded.

**_xxxxxx_**

**_Do you guys like how I'm writing this? I mean, is it worth reading still? I just feel like this isn't really so much of a story with lost of conflicts and resolutions, but rather sort of just interactions, both positive and negative... I feel like I could write up these little interactions forever without ever finding an ending point... I'll find an ending point some day though... Maybe I'll wrap it up in my next update. I think most of the important part of the story has already been said in my previous chapters. :)_**

**_Review please, if you will, so I know if this is still going well. I like it, personally, but I'm not sure if the plot is going to be interesting if it keeps going like this, being sort of calm... Hmmm... just review, will you? :)_**


	7. Mordhaus II

_**Sorry it's taking me so long to update this each time... I have so much to do right now, school-wise... Lots of papers, presentations, a play.... Ahhh!! They love to pile it all on right before break... Two more weeks... and then I'll have a break from school! Wooot!**_

_**I don't know how many people are still reading this... since I haven't checked the hit count on my stats for this story, but I know at least the few who reviewed are reading it still... :) Thank you for reading and reviewing.**_

_**xxxxxx**_

Toki was so angry. Murderface hadn't hit him very hard, but it still made Toki angry that he had hit him at all. Why couldn't Toki laugh at a joke? Was Murderface really so insecure that he had to be so defensive about a simple joke? Toki sulked down the hallway where the band mates' bedrooms were. As he was about to walk into his own room, he stopped, looking further down the hall. Murderface's room was just a few doors down, and the bassist was definitely not there to stop him from going into his room.

Toki stood silently for a moment, considering his options. He knew he had to get Murderface back for hitting him. He didn't want to hit him back, because then he would be a hypocrite. Ofdensen had told him to never go into Murderface's room, so Toki figured the bassist was probably very particular about keeping everything which belonged to him untouched by anyone else. Therefore, the best way to get back at him would be to go into his room and move some of this things around, or even steal something.

Toki grinned and started walking toward Murderface's room, but stopped suddenly when he heard another door open, and saw the shadow of someone else further down the hallway. He remained completely still, not knowing if he should run and into Murderface's room, run the other way, or simply stay where he was. He decided on the last option, remaining completely still and staring down the hallway, waiting to see who would soon be approaching him.

In a few seconds, Toki saw who was approaching. It was Nathan. At first Nathan looked as though he was just going to walk right passed Toki, ignoring his presence entirely, but when Toki made no attempt to look away or to move at all, but rather stared at Nathan as he walked closer, as if he had just murdered someone, Nathan became somewhat suspicious of what the rhythm guitarist was up to.

Nathan stopped a few feet in front of Toki, "Uh... hey..." he greeted him.

"Hellos," Toki said back, looking and sounding nervous.

Nathan raised his eyebrow, "So... what are you uh... doing?" he asked.

Toki shrugged his shoulders, "nothings," he lied, "just... standings heres... looks-ings at de walls and stuffs... and de floors... de ceilings too..."

Nathan couldn't help but smile slightly. He was by no means a genius, but even he could tell that Toki's lie was the worst lie he had ever heard, "You're... uh... looking at the walls and the ceilings?"

Toki nodded, "Yeah... and de floors."

"Okay..." since Nathan knew Toki was lying, he decided to play along and see how long Toki would keep lying, and how unbelievable his story would get if he just kept acting as though he believed him, "so... did you notice anything interesting about the... uh... walls... and floors?" he asked.

Toki shrugged again, "dey looks pretties goods..." he said, looking up and then to his left and then back at Nathan, "De walls is a good colours."

"Why are you looking at the walls?" Nathan asked, "I mean... isn't there something else that's... uh... more interesting... that you could be doing?"

Toki narrowed his eyes, "likes whats?" he asked.

"I don't know... like... anything else... Seriously... like anything at all..." Nathan told him, "why don't you get drunk again?"

Toki blinked a few times, "Ofdensen tells me nots to."

"So... you're going to always do what Ofdensen says?" Nathan asked, "if we did that... we'd all be like... his employees... or you know... in your case, like his kid," Nathan laughed.

Toki frowned, "I don'ts always do whats he says. I alreadies was drinkings tonights... just not gets drunks. I just has one drinks."

"Yeah... well... having one drink is like having no drinks," Nathan said, "if you're not going to have any more than just one, why even bother?"

"I don't wants to gets drunks rights now!" Toki yelled, more loudly than he had meant to.

"Okay... okay..." Nathan gave in, "you don't have to freak out about it..."

"I nots..." Toki argued, lowering his voice back down to a normal tone, "I gots somethings I has to do... so... I sees you laters."

Nathan nodded, "yeah... Uh... I guess I'll be in the main room... so, uh... you can come hang out in there later if you want to."

Toki nodded, "okays."

Nathan turned and walked away, as Toki stayed exactly where he had been standing throughout their conversation. When Nathan was out of sight, Toki opened the door to Murderface's room, and walked inside. He flipped a light switch near the door and looked around. The room was full of weapons, many of which Toki had never seen anything like, and items that looked to be historical artifacts, such as uniforms from wars, old guns which would have probably been common a few hundred years ago, and other old-looking trinkets.

Toki walked around the room. There were swords, maces, guns, knives, and almost any weapon he could have imagined. If he had been thinking harder, he might have reconsidered his decision of getting back at Murderface, since his revenge might lead to a painful death. He didn't know Murderface very well, and based on the fact that he had hit Toki just for laughing at him, the man could likely decide to kill him with one of these weapons for trespassing in his room.

He looked around some more. He needed to steal something, just so he would feel as though Murderface did not win their mild argument. Toki looked at a table which held many knives and daggers. He picked up one which he liked, and held it. This dagger would be what he would take. Murderface had so many weapons, he surely wouldn't notice just one missing, so this way everyone would win. Murderface would think he had won, but Toki would have stolen one of Murderface's things, so he would know that he had been the one to have truly prevailed.

Toki took the dagger and went back to his own room. He slid the dagger under his bed, so no one would be able to see it. Then he sat on his bed, staring at the photos taped to his walls.

_**xxxxxx**_

Nathan walked into the main room where Murderface was sitting in the hot tub, and Pickles was sitting in a chair, watching television.

Nathan knew Murderface's rule about the hot tub, so he knew he would need to get Pickles to get into the hot tub as well before he did, "Hey, Pickles," he yelled across the room, "you getting in the hot tub?"

Pickles nodded, "Yeah. Jest a minute."

Nathan and Pickles both got into the hot tub, Pickles bringing his drink with him.

"Man..." Nathan began, "That Toki guy is weird... everything he does isn't normal... You should have seen him a minute ago... I don't know what he was planning, but he was just standing in the hallway, looking like a kid who was about to steal something or about to break into a store or commit some sort of crime... and when I asked what he was doing... he just said that he was uh... like, looking at the walls."

"Yeah," Pickles agreed, "he's weird alright... I think he like daydreams a lot er somethin' 'cause he's always jest starin' off into space an' whatever."

"Yeah..." Nathan continued, "it kind of makes you wonder... uh... like... maybe he's planning on killing us or something... I can just never tell what he's thinking about... but he said he had something to do or something... so I just left... Hopefully he doesn't kill us, right?"

"Yeah... I kind of would prefer that he didn't decide ta kill us... yeah..." Pickles agreed, "but I don't think he will... I think tha reason he's actin all weird is jest because he jest came to a new country, an' like doesn't speak English completely right an' everything... He's probably jest kind of stressed out from all the change goin' on in his life, ya know?"

"Ahem," Murderface cleared his throat, "how many timesch do we need to remind you that we aren't schupposed to care about each other?"

"I wasn't..." Pickles began.

"Well, I think you kind of schound like you are schowing a perschonal interescht in Toki's perschonal problemsch, and that isch really _not_ very metal..."

Pickles scowled at Murderface, "I think if we think he might decide ta kill us, it's not unreasonable ta kind of maybe wanna discuss it... I was jest saying why I thought he was actin weird... not that I care about it... jest my thoughts on what his deal is, ya know?"

"Whatever," Murderface said in a sarcastic tone.

Nathan decided to cut in before Pickles could say anything in response, "So.. Uh, what about that other guy? The tall one... What happened to him? I haven't seen him since we got back."

"I dunno," Pickles answered. He then looked at Murderface, "An' I don't care either."

Murderface nodded in approval

Nathan sighed. His own rule was becoming tough to follow. If he couldn't even ask where Skwisgaar was, how was he supposed to know where the guitarist was? "I think you guys are taking the... uh... rule about not caring about each other a little too far," Nathan told them, "You can wonder where someone is... That doesn't mean you care about them... you know? It means... like... that you don't know where they are... But... you... uh... like, want to know... where they are... so you ask... But that doesn't mean you care about their personal lives... you just wanna know where they are."

"Schounds about right," Murderface agreed.

Pickles frowned. Murderface continuously contradicted himself, but never admitted he was wrong about anything. Pickles figured he could probably argue with the bassist all night, and Murderface would likely be willing to argue back; the drummer didn't want to waste his time doing so. Therefore, he didn't bother pointing out Murderface's contradictions.

_**xxxxxx**_

Skwisgaar had been asleep ever since he, Toki, and Ofdensen had returned from the mall. He now felt well rested, but he was unsure of what he should do now. He was in a huge mansion, undoubtedly full of things to keep him occupied, but he didn't know his way around, and wasn't sure where to start exploring. Instead of going off on his own, he figured maybe he would find Toki and have him come along.

Skwisgaar exited his room and made his way down the hallway to the room which Toki had chosen. The door was closed, so he knocked.

"Holds on!" Toki yelled from inside the room.

"What's you doings?" Skwisgaar asked, impatiently, "can I comes in?"

"Oh... Is just yous... You cans comes in," Toki told him.

Skwisgaar opened the door and walked into the poorly lit small room. He looked around, noticing the same things Pickles had noticed earlier. The room was almost empty, except for a few things, including a teddy bear and eerie photographs taped to the wall. Skwisgaar narrowed his eyes and looked at Toki, who was holding a button in between two of his fingers, "What's you doings in heres?" Skwisgaar asked. From what he saw, it looked like Toki had just been sitting in the dark, holding a button. He didn't know what normal Norwegians did in their spare time, but he doubted playing with a button in a dark room was a popular pastime.

"Promise you won'ts tells?" Toki asked, leaning forward and speaking softly.

Skwisgaar raised his eyebrow, "Okays... I promises..."

Toki leaned even closer and lowered his voice even more, "Dis buttons..." he began, starting to grin and holding up the button for Skwisgaar to see, "I steals it froms Murderface's rooms. Dat guys was a jerks, so I steals somes of his stuffs."

"Uh huh..." Skwisgaar was clearly confused, "You thinks he goings to be mads dat you takes a buttons? He probablies wills not evens notice..."

"But dis buttons is olds," Toki explained, "Is was in a jars whats said 'Civils Wars Battles... Buttons... of Olds... Wars...' I don'ts remembers whats it says... but is olds, and I thinks he likes to collects old things... so I steals it. He maybes not notices, so he thinks nothings, but I knows dat I steals it, so I wins."

"Okays... So anyways... you wants to walks arounds?" Skwisgaar asked, "Sees whats dere is for to do in dis place?"

"I already walks arounds a littles bits," Toki told him, "I goes in de kitchens, and de rooms whats has a hots tubs and televisions... but I cans walks arounds mores..."

"Goods," Skwisgaar smiled, walking out of the room with Toki following, "Which ways you thinks we shoulds goes?"

"I don'ts cares," Toki told him, "just nots in de mains rooms whats has de hots tubs. Murderface is means, and I don'ts wants to talks to hims."

Skwisgaar grinned. Toki was so much like a child... "Okays. We stays outs of dat areas," Skwisgaar agreed.

Neither of the guitarists knew their way around Mordhaus, so Skwisgaar decided to simply pretend he did, leading the way through various hallways. Toki followed, walking slightly behind Skwisgaar, but still to his side, trusting that Skwisgaar wouldn't get them _too_ lost in the giant house.

After walking around for a while, they reached the end of a hallway which had a large window. Toki walked up to the window and peered through it, and downward, at the yard surrounding Mordhaus. There were Dethklok employees doing various tasks to upkeep the plants and other things within the yard. To Toki's delight, there also appeared to be dogs roaming about in a section further away from most of the employees.

"Looks!" he yelled to Skwisgaar, who hadn't been interested in looking out the window and had been leaning against the wall, waiting for Toki to start following him back the way they had come. Skwisgaar walked over to the window and looked down.

"Whats?" he asked, not seeing anything of interest.

"Looks rights overs deres!" Toki yelled, pointing at the dogs, "Dere's dogs outs-sides!"

Skwisgaar finally spotted the dogs, "I thinks those mights be maybes wolves..." he noted.

Toki turned to look at Skwisgaar. He looked back down at the dogs and then up at Skwisgaar again, with a confused expression on his face, "Whats is de difference?"

Skwisgaar looked outside at the dogs, and thought about this for a moment... _What was the difference? _Dogs and wolves actually seemed just about the same to him, "Dat's a goods questions... I thinks maybe deres is nots a difference afters all..."

Toki nodded, "Lets goes finds a ways outs-sides to plays with dems!" he suggested.

Skwisgaar sighed. He didn't really want to go outside and play with dogs... or wolves... or whatever they were. Dogs just jump all over you and drool and get dirt and mud on your clothing... There was nothing about 'playing' with the dogs/wolves that appealed to him.

Toki continued looking at Skwisgaar, as though he was awaiting Skwisgaar's permission.

"You cans if you wants," Skwisgaar said, "buts I don'ts wants to."

Toki frowned. He wanted Skwisgaar to go with him. He really did want to play with the dogs though. When he lived in Norway, he had seen other people with pet dogs, and had always wanted one, but his parents wouldn't allow it. And when he lived in Sweden, he was barely able to keep himself alive; having a pet was simply out of the question. But now it seemed he did have some pets, and he wanted to play with them.

"You don'ts wants to goes withs me?" Toki asked, disappointment clear in his voice, "I don'ts even knows hows to gets down deres... I never finds de ways outsides."

"I don'ts wants dogs jumps-ings alls overs me," Skwisgaar told him, "I helps you finds a ways outs-sides, but den I maybe goes finds somethings to eats or somethings... I don'ts feels likes goings outsides and gettings dogs drools and hairs alls over me."

"Okays," Toki agreed, knowing that Skwisgaar was not going to give in. Playing with the dogs without Skwisgaar would still be fun.

Toki followed Skwisgaar down some halls until they found an elevator, and took it to the ground floor of Mordhaus. They wandered about for a bit more until they found a door which led outside. Skwisgaar walked outside with Toki to make sure they were in the right place. When they spotted the dogs, Skwisgaar left Toki to go play with them, while the older guitarist went back inside.

Skwisgaar found his way back to the elevator and took it up a few floors. He was trying to find the kitchen, but had absolutely no idea where it was. After looking for about three minutes, he got impatient, and decided to simply ask a Dethklok employee who was walking by.

"Hey yous!" he called out.

The employee stopped, "Yes, Master?"

Skwisgaar grinned. He liked how the employee addressed him as 'Master.' These employees seemed to be willing to treat the band like kings, "I needs for to finds de kitchens in dis place. Where's is it?"

"Would you like me to give you directions, lead you there, or simply have someone bring you your meal to your room, the main room, or any other room of the house?" the employee asked, as though the line was rehearsed.

Skwisgaar raised his eyebrow, "Uh... whatevers... I guess shows me wheres is de mains rooms, and den has somes-ones to brings me somethings," he decided.

"Very well, Master," the employee agreed, leading the way.

The employee led Skwisgaar to the main room, where Nathan, Pickles, and Murderface were sitting on chairs, watching television. Actually, Nathan and Murderface were sitting on chairs watching television, and Pickles was sort of half-laying on a sofa, almost passed out due to consuming far too much alcohol.

Skwisgaar walked over to the sofa Nathan was sitting on, and sat down on the other end of it. Neither Nathan nor Murderface greeted him when he walked into the room, but he wasn't entirely surprised. Pickles, of course, he didn't expect any greeting from, as the drummer didn't seem aware of the fact that Skwisgaar was even in the room.

Skwisgaar looked up at the television, and then at Pickles, who still didn't seem to notice that he had walked into the room. The man looked completely out of it. Skwisgaar looked over at Nathan, "Uh... ams dat guys okays?" he asked, referring to Pickles.

Without taking his eyes off of the television screen, Nathan responded, "Yeah... he's fine."

"Ams you sures?" Skwisgaar asked, looking back at Pickles, "he just layings deres likes he deads..."

"He's fine... okay?" Nathan repeated, "he does that all the time... he'll be fine in a few minutes probably... Just has to... like... digest the alcohol... or something... He's fine though."

Skwisgaar didn't look convinced. He walked over to the sofa where Pickles was laying, and sat down beside him.

"I wouldn't schit there if I wasch you," Murderface warned, "he'sch very drunk, and the posschibility of him throwing up isch very high... Scho... I wouldn't schit scho closche to him... Juscht my advische to you..."

Skwisgaar ignored his warning and shook Pickles by the shoulder.

Pickles turned his head slightly, with unfocused eyes looking at Skwisgaar, "oh... heeeey..." he slurred.

"Hi," Skwisgaar responded, "I was just makings sure you wasn'ts deads."

"Oh... okay," Pickles said, "Okay... uh... well... I'm not... So... thank ya anyways."

Skwisgaar nodded and walked back over and sat next to Nathan again. By the time the show they were watching reached the commercials, Pickles seemed a lot more aware of his surroundings.

"Fascht forward through the commercialsch!" Murderface ordered.

"I don't have the remote," Nathan informed him.

Murderface frowned, "Well... I'm not getting up to look for it."

"Me neither!" Nathan told him.

"Fine!" Murderface yelled, "We'll juscht have to schuffer through the commercialsch then!"

Skwisgaar looked over to Pickles, who was grinning, a bit more sober now, but still not entirely. He had control of the television through various pedals at his feet. Skwisgaar didn't know this, and apparently Nathan and Murderface had forgotten. Pickles didn't seem to care to remind them either. He sometimes liked the commercials, so he could speak and be listened to. When the band was watching the television, Nathan and Murderface almost completely ignored anyone who spoke to them. He didn't know if they did it on purpose, or if they were so engrossed in the television that they did it without knowing, but if he had something to say, he would always have to wait until the commercials.

Pickles didn't have anything to say to Murderface or Nathan, but he did have a question for Skwisgaar, "Whet ever happened to Toki?" he asked. He wondered what Toki had done after Murderface had made him angry. He knew Murderface and Nathan didn't want him to show any interest in anyone's problems, but Toki seemed very emotionally damaged, and he really was slightly worried about how Toki was doing. He seemed pretty angry when he left earlier, "Have ya seen 'im lately? He left here quite a while ago... I hope he didn't run away er anything..."

"Oh... he didn'ts," Skwisgaar told him, "I sees him just a minutes agos. We walks arounds in de halls-ways and looks outs a windows, and he sees some dogs. Den he goes outs-sides to plays with dem."

Pickles narrowed his eyes, "Ya mean tha yard wolves?" he asked.

"Whatevers," Skwisgaar said, "dogs... wolves... what's de differences? Whatevers dey ares, Tokis wents outsides to plays withs dem."

Nathan, who had been listening to their conversation, couldn't help being concerned. Whether Murderface liked it or not, he wasn't going to let their sixteen year old guitarist be eaten by wolves, "He's outside right now?" Nathan asked, to clarify exactly what he was dealing with.

Skwisgaar nodded.

Nathan sighed, "You let him go outside to play with wolves?" he asked.

"Ja... whats is wrongs with dat?" Skwisgaar asked.

Nathan and Pickles both stood up.

"Well..." Pickles began, "I hope they didn't eat 'im..."

Skwisgaar frowned, "Whats you means?"

"Wolves aren't that friendly, ya know?" Pickles explained

"Come on," Nathan urged, "Let's go find him."

Pickles, Nathan, and Skwisgaar made their way down to the ground floor, while Murderface stayed exactly where he was. Just because those guys were giving in and caring about each other doesn't mean he was going to. He didn't care if the wolves ate Toki. They didn't need two guitarists anyway.

_**xxxxxx**_

_**Sorry if I'm making Murderface seem like too much of a dick... but he really is a jerk... so it's not too unthinkable that he wouldn't care if Toki got eaten by wolves. :)**_

_**Please review. :)**_

**_I'll try to update next weekend, but like I said before, I've got a lot of school stuff, and I might not find time to write more of this... I'll try to, but I cannot make any promises... I'll definately update it eventually though. :)_**


	8. Yard Woleves

_**Thank you for reading and/or reviewing. Sorry it took me so long to update, but I don't think many people care about this story anymore anyway. :) Anyway, I kind of turned it into just random happenings at early Mordhaus... But I think I'll probably end it within a few chapters... I almost even have a plan on how to end it... almost... **_

_**Anyway, here you go... I didn't proof-read it... I hope it isn't too bad... I just don't feel like proof-reading right now, and on the off chance that someone is reading this, I don't want to make them wait until I do feel like proof-reading it... **_

_**Here it is:**_

_**xxxxxx**_

Skwisgaar had just turned to go back inside, and now Toki was left outside by himself. He could see the dogs, or wolves... or whatever they were, and would have to walk a bit to reach them, but the distance wasn't far.

He made his way over to the animals, which turned to face him as he approached them.

"Hellos, dogs... ors maybes you ares wol-eves..." Toki said to them.

One of the wolves started growling at him, as it walked slowly toward him.

"Ummm..." Toki could sense this particular wolf didn't think much of the guitarist being here, "you don'ts has to be worried," he told the wolf, "I nots goings to bothers yous... I just wants to maybes plays with somes of de nicer ones of yous..."

The wolf continued to growl, but the other wolves didn't seem angry, but rather simply curious of Toki's presence.

One of the wolves walked up to Toki, and he patted it on the head. It didn't seem to have a problem with Toki being here. The guitarist smiled. If he could just get some of the wolves to accept him, maybe they all would.

The wolf who had been growling at him had stopped advancing and was now sitting, simply watching Toki interact with the other wolves. Within a few minutes, Toki was sitting on the ground, petting the wolves which surrounded him. The one who had been growling at him was the only one he hadn't petted, but he didn't want it to get angry at him, so he left it alone.

Instead, he played with the friendly wolves, letting them jump on him, sometimes even knocking him down. Toki didn't know how long he was rolling around on the ground with the wolves, who were becoming more and more playful, but he soon noticed that having about six playful wolves jumping on you and pulling at your limbs playfully was a bit more dangerous than simply having six little puppies doing so.

Toki was laying on his back, with one of the wolves standing on top of him. Another was biting his shirt, pulling at it as though he wanted Toki to stand up. Toki struggled and finally managed to stand, while the wolves continued to playfully jump at him.

"Okays, wol-eves..." Toki said, "I thinks I done playings with yous now... I gots bloods runnings downs my arms... I goings to goes in now..."

The wolves weren't done playing with him though, and continued to jump on him, knocking him back down. Toki decided he would just crawl away slowly, and eventually make it back to the house. As he crawled, with the wolves jumping all over him, he couldn't quite pay attention to where he was going, and eventually ended up even further from the house than he was before he started crawling.

Toki stopped crawling and looked around. He could, of course, still see the house, but it was a bit far for him to make a run for it. The wolves were surely faster than him, so he wouldn't be able to outrun them. He figured maybe the wolves thought he was one of them, since they continued to jump all over him and play with him as though he was their friend. Maybe they wanted him to stay with the pack. Toki's eyes widened as he looked around at the wolves which surrounded him... What if they never let him leave? Would he have to spend the rest of his life being a wolf? He liked playing with the wolves, but he didn't really want to _be_ one of them...

"Okays, wol-eves..." Toki pleaded, his voice becoming more and more panicked, "Um... I ams nots a wol-eves... Um... I has to goes..." He stood up and began walking back toward the house, with the wolves following him.

As the wolves became less jumpy, and simply wandered around near him, Toki was able to walk without being knocked over. Since he wasn't preoccupied with keeping himself on his feet, he was able to catch a glimpse of something black out of the corner of his eye... Something black _and red_, laying on the ground, with a few wolves seemingly sniffing it.

Toki turned and walked closer to the black and red mass. The wolves were not sniffing it at all... They were eating it. The mass was not just some random object; it was a person, one of the Dethklok employees, still wearing the black clothing and hood over his face, but with a pool of blood around his body. He was most clearly dead.

Toki stood staring down at the body, not knowing what to do. It didn't look like the man had been dead for too long, and it wasn't clear how he died, but there he was... laying dead on the ground... being eaten by wolves.

Toki wasn't sure how long he stood staring down at the body, but his attention was eventually drawn to the wolves dispersing.

"Where you goings!?" Toki yelled to the wolves, "I didn't means what I says befores abouts has to goes!! I wills be a wol-eves... Just don'ts leaves me with dis dead guys!"

"Toki, whet are ya doing?" the guitarist heard the voice of Pickles. Toki turned around to see Pickles, Skwisgaar, and Nathan standing behind him. The wolves had probably run away when they saw the three men approaching.

Toki looked at them uneasily. He hoped they wouldn't blame the death of the Dethklok employee on him, "Uh... I comes outs heres to plays with de dogs... um... de wol-eves... Uh... ands... I- I founds dis guys... whats deads... but I didn'ts kills hims... I reallies didn'ts!" Toki's voice was frantic.

Nathan hadn't noticed the dead man until Toki mentioned it. He peered over Toki's shoulder at the body laying in the pool of blood, "Ha!" he laughed, "I knew you would end up snapping and killing someone! But at least it was him and not one of us..." Nathan looked over at Pickles, "Didn't I tell you? I knew he was gonna snap and kill someone! I totally called it... We should have made a bet..."

Skwisgaar glared at Nathan, "Pfft... He not snaps and kills no ones..."

"I think the evidence speaks for itself," Nathan replied, gesturing passed Toki's shoulder at the corpse.

"I reallies didn'ts!!" Toki persisted, "I was playings with de wol-eves, and I looks over here... and dey eatings dis guys!"

"We know ya didn't kill 'im," Pickles assured him, "I mean, come on, Nate'n... if he wanted ta kill someone, I'm sure he'd of killed Murderface instead."

Nathan and Toki both nodded.

"Okay... well," Pickles began, "lets go back inside then. And Toki?"

"Yeah?" Toki answered.

"Don't be playin' with tha yard wolves... 'cause they aren't tame... an' they might like... attack you er somethin' ya know? They could probably kill you if ya aren't careful... so jest don't come out here all alone and play with the wolves..." Pickles explained, "They may look like pet dogs, but they're not tame... They're wild."

"But I did plays with dems... and dey _ares_likes pet dogs," Toki argued.

"Tokis," Skwisgaar cut in, "you has dirts alls overs you, has rips in yours shirts, and has scratches on yours arms... I thinks Pickle maybe is rights... You probablies shouldn'ts playings with de wolves..."

Toki frowned, "we just were havings fun... If you plays with dogs you gets dirties..."

"And scratches alls over? And rips up clothings?!" Skwisgaar was beginning to sound angry, as though he was scolding a younger sibling, "You cannots plays with de wolves anymores, because whats was now just littles scratches mights next times be dey bites your throats and kills you!"

"Skwisgaar's right," Nathan agreed, "and if you're dead... you're not going to be able to play the guitar... and... well... then we're gonna have to fire you... you know... if you can't play... the... uh... Um... what was I saying?"

"Yer saying that if he's dead, he can't be in tha band..." Pickles reminded him.

Nathan nodded, "yeah."

"But I won'ts gets dead..." Toki told them.

"Jest don't play with the wolves anymore," Pickles told him, "if ya want like... a pet, we can get one that won't kill you."

"Whatevers," Toki agreed. He didn't intend on keeping his promise. He wanted to play with the wolves again someday, and he wasn't going to let Skwisgaar, Pickles, and Nathan stop him from doing so.

_**xxxxxx**_

When Murderface returned to his room, he automatically sensed that something was wrong. He always kept his door completely closed, but now it was just almost closed, only not quite completely. Before he entered his room, he looked down the hallway, both ways, but no one was there. They were probably all outside digging pieces of Toki's body out of the stomachs of the yard wolves.

Murderface narrowed his eyes as he scanned his room, to make sure everything was still in place. It didn't take him long at all to find that one of his daggers was missing. Someone had taken it, and he had a pretty good idea who. When Nathan mentioned Toki acting strange earlier, he was probably planning on stealing his dagger. He looked around his room some more, to make sure Toki didn't take anything else. His jar of buttons from civil war uniforms looked like it had been moved a bit, but he honestly didn't know how many buttons he had in the jar, so couldn't be sure if Toki took one or a few of the buttons. He would just have to ask the rhythm guitarist later, and if he didn't admit to stealing his things, he would have to kill him.

Being impatient, Murderface decided to go to Toki's room now, so he could search for the dagger, and possibly the button or buttons which Toki most likely stole. The problem with this plan, however, was that the bassist didn't know where Toki's room was, and he didn't want to search all over until he found it, so he walked down to Ofdensen's office so he could ask him where the guitarist's room was.

Unlike Skwisgaar and Toki, Murderface didn't bother knocking on Ofdensen's door. Instead, he simply opened the door and began speaking.

"Hey, if you could do me a favour really quick..." Murderface began, speaking to Ofdensen, who sat behind his desk, "Uh... I'm going to need to know where Toki'sch room is, pleasche... if that'sch not too much to aschk..."

Ofdensen narrowed his eyes, "What are you up to, Murderface?" he asked.

"Oh... me? Um... nothing... I juscht need to know where Toki'sch room isch." Murderface answered.

"How about I walk down there with you and show you?" Ofdensen offered, wondering what Murderface was planning. Judging by his tone, Murderface wasn't simply curious as to which room was Toki's. He didn't seem to be looking for Toki, but rather just his room, so Ofdensen assumed he was probably up to something.

"Whatever," Murderface agreed, "I juscht need to know where it isch... you can come if you want."

"Very well," Ofdensen told him, walking out of the office. Murderface followed him down the halls to the room which Toki had chosen, "This is Toki's room, but if he isn't in there, I would just wait until he comes back. Like I told him and Skwisgaar, I don't think you guys should go into each other's rooms without permission, or it might start arguments..."

"Whatever..." Murderface said, "That'sch all I needed..."

"Okay..." Ofdensen replied, but waited to see what Murderface was going to do.

"Okay then... you can leave now," Murderface told him.

Ofdensen sighed, "fine... just don't bother anything in his room. You wouldn't want him in your room, so be considerate." Ofdensen turned and left.

Once Ofdensen was gone, Murderface opened the door and looked around the small room. 'Why did Toki choose this room?' he wondered... The room was almost empty, so it didn't take him long to search for and find the dagger, under the bed. He didn't find any buttons, however, so he assumed the guitarist hadn't taken any. He would still ask him about it later, however, just to make sure.

Now that Murderface had his dagger back, he didn't know what else to do, so he looked at the pictures on Toki's wall. It looked like the photographs of two crazy religious people... 'Oh jeeze...' Murderface thought to himself, 'I hope Toki isn't religious...'

_**xxxxxx**_

The next time the band all came together was the next day, when Ofdensen instructed all of the band mates to attend a mandatory band meeting in the dinning room.

Ofdensen sat at the end of a long table while he waited for each of the members of the band to arrive. Murderface was the first to arrive. He sat down, taking the dagger Toki had stolen and stabbing it into the wood of the table, taking it out, and stabbing again, repeating this process, as he commonly did.

Nathan arrived next. He sat across from Murderface and looked at Ofdensen, "What do you want?" he asked.

"Well," Ofdensen began, "why don't we wait for everyone to get here, so I can just say it once instead of five times."

Nathan sighed, "fine."

"Actually, before Toki gets here, I've been meaning to speak with you, Murderface," Ofdensen said.

Murderface looked up from stabbing the table and looked at Ofdensen.

"Toki told me that he thinks you hate him," Ofdensen informed Murderface.

"Uh huh..." Murderface started... "...and...?"

"Well, you should probably try to let him know that you don't really hate him?" Ofdensen suggested, "I mean, you don't have to come out and say it, but maybe just try to be a little nicer? Because you and I both know you don't really hate each other, even though you all like to pretend to, hm?"

"No... I really do hate him," Murderface told Ofdensen.

"Awww... you don't mean that..." Nathan cut in, "you are taking the not caring about each other rule a little too far... don't you think? You can not really care about him, and still not _hate _him..."

Murderface sighed, "Or... I could not care about him... _and _hate him... at the schame time," he suggested. He didn't really hate Toki, but he didn't want to admit it. The kid got on his nerves sometimes, but he didn't actually hate him.

This discussion was abruptly ended when Skwisgaar and Toki arrived in the dining room, at the same time. Toki's arms were covered in band aides, from the scratches inflicted upon him by the yard wolves. Most of the scratches didn't really require band aides, as they were no longer bleeding, but something about being able to conceal all of his cuts appealed to Toki, and he wanted every bit of each scratch to be covered with a band aid or two. He didn't usually have the luxury of infinite band aides, and he was definitely going to take advantage of being able to use band aides rather than having to leave his injuries un-attended to.

The band had to wait a few more minutes for Pickles to arrive, and when he did arrive, it was clear that he was slightly drunk. He had probably been completely wasted the previous night, and didn't want a hang-over, so he drank more this morning.

"Alright," Ofdensen began, "now that everyone is here, I'll address a few topics and concerns. First of all, I feel the need to inform you that your chef is ill, so I've hired a new chef, who might only be temporary, but just so you know, the other chef is ill, and should be back working when he recovers. Secondly, you need to be thinking about songs for an album." Ofdensen looked over to Nathan, who didn't seem to realize that Ofdensen was talking to him, "Nathan... you need to start thinking of lyrics... or you could have the rest of the band come up with the music and then decide lyrics... however you want to do it... You all need to discuss all of that together and get some songs ready to record sometime within the next month."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Pickles slurred, "We've done this before... well... most of us... don't worry... we'll figure it out."

Murderface apparently still had the fact that Toki stole his dagger on his mind, and felt the need to address this issue immediately, "Toki!" he called across the table to Toki.

Toki looked up, "whats?" he asked. When he saw that Murderface was holding the dagger he had stolen, Toki looked almost frightened.

"Did you take anything elsche?" Murderface asked, "Like... maybe schome buttonsch?"

Toki didn't want to give the button back. If he did that, then he wouldn't have won their argument. Murderface would have. He had taken the button to make them even, and if he didn't get to keep it, he wouldn't be even with Murderface. But did Murderface know he stole it? Think he did? Toki decided to take a chance and lie.

"No," he said, "alls I takes is dat daggers... because you hits me."

"Okay," Murderface told him, "I believe you... but you better not schteal anything of mine ever again... And schtay out of my room completely."

Toki nodded. He was surprised that Murderface wasn't more angry with him.

"Oh yeah... another thing I wanted to aschk you..." Murderface began, "... you're not... _religious_, are you?"

Toki shook his head, "no..." he answered, "I don'ts likes religions... Dey don'ts reallies make veries much of sense..."

"Yeah... I know," Murderface agreed, "They're schtupid, isch what they are... Juscht a bunch of crap..."

"Okay then," Ofdensen yelled over the conversations now being held between various band members, "you guys get together, organize practices, write songs, and just do what you do..."

Ofdensen stood and left, leaving the five band mates sitting at the table.

"Well..." Pickles spoke up, "it's like 10:00 in the morning... and I was up until like 5:00 am last night... er... this morning... er whatever... so... uh... I'm goin' back ta bed..."

"Yeah," Murderface agreed, "me too."

"Me too," Nathan said.

"I'ms not sleepies at alls," Toki said, looking at Skwisgaar.

Skwisgaar shrugged, "I'm goings to beds too. I stays up pretties much alls nights... so I sees you laters afters I sleeps."

"Okays..." Toki sounded disappointed, but Skwisgaar didn't seem to care. Toki sighed. He was the only one left in the dining room. Maybe he should take this opportunity to build his model plane?

Toki walked back to his room and built the plane. It didn't take him long, and he wasn't sure all of the pieces were where they were supposed to be, but it looked good enough, so he left it on his desk to dry and walked back into the hallway.

He wasn't sure where he wanted to go next, so he just stood and thought for a moment. During this moment, he noticed his stomach growling. He almost forgot that he could go and eat whenever he wanted to now. Ordinarily, in Sweden, finding food was quite difficult when you have no money, but now he could just walk to the kitchen and eat whatever he wanted. So he decided to do just that.

Upon arriving to the kitchen, Toki saw the new chef was there.

"Good morning, Master," the chef greeted him.

"Hellos," Toki replied, "I just goings to looks fors somethings to eats..."

"Oh, there's no need, sir... I can make it for you. What would you like?" the chef offered.

"Umm... Whats happens to de others chef?" Toki asked, wondering if the dead man he saw outside might have been the supposedly sick chef.

"The doctors aren't sure actually," the new chef told Toki, "he just started coughing up blood... So they took him to the hospital... I'm sure he'll be fine though... Don't worry."

Toki was worried though. What if he or one of the other members of Dethklok got the same sickness? Or what if Ofdensen did? Or everyone in the entire house!?

The chef could tell Toki was worried, "I'm certain he'll be fine. And I'm sure it's not contagious... It's almost like there is a curse on the chefs," he laughed.

"Whats you means?" Toki asked, "curse on dem?"

"Yeah," the chef explained, "I mean... I'm sure there isn't really, but it almost seems like there is. The last chef died. He was decapitated in a car accident... And now this one is coughing up blood... If someone around here is going to die, it'll probably be me, right?" the chef was laughing, but Toki didn't find it very funny.

"Do you reallies thinks you wills die?" Toki asked.

The chef sighed, "no. I was making a joke. I'm sorry. I should be more formal with you rather than making jokes... What would you like for me to prepare for you, Master?" the chef asked.

"You don'ts has to be formals..." Toki urged, "and I just wants cereals. I can gets it fors myselfs."

"As you wish," the chef agreed, "We have a variety of cereal in the cabinet right over there."

Toki walked over to the cabinet and looked at his choices, reading the titles aloud to himself and making comments on the pictures of cereal on the front of the boxes. Many of the names he hadn't heard of before.

"Luckies Charms... Dats looks kinds of like dey tricks you to eat de gross parts with puttings marshmallows in dere..." Toki looked at the next box, "Captains Crunch... dat's kinds of stupids names... Fruities pebbles... Hmm... I likes fruities... nots pebbles... Hmmmm... Trix... Dat's fruities..." Toki looked at the box for a moment, "dere's on dis box is a rabbits... I think I eats dis ones."

Toki took the box over to a table in the kitchen and put it down, where the chef had gotten a bowl and spoon out for him, "would you like to eat in the dinning room or main room?" the chef asked.

Toki shook his head, "No... I just eats in heres with yous. You wants for to eats some fruities rabbit cereals with me?" he asked.

Ordinarily the chef wouldn't have dared to eat casually with any of the members of Dethklok, but something about Toki made him think that if he didn't accept the offer, the guitarist's feelings would be hurt. Therefore, he accepted, getting out another bowl and spoon as Toki retrieved a half-gallon of milk from the refrigerator.

The chef and Toki sat at the table, eating the cereal and talking.

"So, where did you come from?" the chef asked him, "I've worked here before, for Nathan, Pickles, and Murderface. I notice you and Skwisgaar just arrived recently."

"Skwisgaar and I was live in Swedens," Toki told him.

The chef nodded, "you don't look very old," the chef commented, hoping that Toki would reveal his age without him having to actually ask. The guitarist looked like a teenager.

"Thanks you," Toki smiled, "I am nots dat olds... so I glads I don'ts looks very olds... you don't looks too olds either... wells... sorts of... not extremelies olds though..."

The chef grinned, "I'm forty-two," he informed him.

"See... you not looks too olds... I thinks maybes you thirties-fives... but you looks not as old as you ares," Toki continued, "Where you comes froms den?"

"I grew up in California," the chef told him.

Toki looked lost, "What's dat? Ams dat by... France?"

"No... It's one of the states," the chef told him.

Toki nodded. He liked this chef. It was good to know that even if the rest of Dethklok didn't want to spend time with him, he would at least be able to come into the kitchen and talk to the chef if he wanted to.

"What's your names?" Toki asked.

The chef was almost startled. When he worked here in the past, no one cared what his name was. He was just the chef. He had worked here for a month in between the time the decapitated chef was killed and the presently sick chef was hired, and he couldn't remember one time during that month when anyone asked him any personal questions.

"My name is Walter," the chef told Toki.

Toki nodded, "I never hears dat names before..."

"Well, it's more common in the states than in Sweden, I'm sure," the chef replied. They were both silent for a moment. Walter wanted to ask Toki about his family, but considering the fact the guitarist was here all by himself and he looked so young, his family probably wasn't that great. The rest of the band never talked about their families, so he figured Toki probably wouldn't want to either.

During the silent moment, the chef noticed Toki's arms covered in band aides, "What happened to your arms?" he asked, "...if you don't mind me asking..."

"Oh... dat's no big deal," Toki explained, "I plays with de yard wol-eves, and dey kind of biggers den littles puppies, so when dey bites and stuffs is not de sames and dey scratches ups my arms."

"You were _playing_ with the yard wolves?" the chef asked, shocked.

Toki nodded, "yep... I thoughts dey weres dogs, but someones tolds me dey is wol-eves. I stills don'ts knows what is de difference."

"Well," the chef began to explain, "wolves are a kind of dogs. 'Dog' is just a name most people use when referring to domesticated dogs... like pets. But really there are a lot of different kinds of dogs, and wolves, typically wild, is just one kind."

"Dat's too confusing," Toki commented as he finished his cereal.

Walter took their dishes and put them into a dish washing machine.

"Wells..." Toki began, "I has fun eatings cereals with yous, and talkings abouts wol-eves... but I think I ams more tireds den I thoughts, so I goings to go to for sleeps in my rooms. I sees you laters."

"Alright," the chef said, "I'll see you later, Toki."

Toki walked back to his room and laid down on his bed, hugging Deddy Bear to his chest. He was glad he had made friends with the new chef. He almost wished the other chef would die so they could keep the new chef instead...

_**xxxxxx**_

_**NOTE: The new chef is not Jean-Pierre... The new chef is Walter... Jean Pierre isn't there yet. :) Anyway, one of my reviewers mentioned something about the Curse of Dethklok, so I'm having a couple employees die, like the guy out by the wolves, and the decapitated chef, the one Walter, the new chef, mentioned. **_

_**My theory on the Dethklok Curse: I think the curse is due to Toki attracting death everywhere he goes, so there will be a lot more death of Dethklok employees now that he has arrived at Mordhaus. :) And in the pilot episode, I think Nathan or Pickles said just the chefs are cursed, when really it's just everyone around Dethklok... so there will be lots of employee death, but the reason the band doesn't notice is because the chefs are really the only ones they keep track of... If some other random employee died, they'd never notice... but if their sandwich maker died... OH NO!! ;)**_

_**Dethklok Employee Death Count So Far: 2**_

**_Review, if you want._**

**_And I'll update sometime... :)_**


	9. Nathan's Guitarists

**_Did I do a disclaimer yet??_**

**_Well... I don't own Metalocalypse or Dethklok... Ofdensen... Mordhaus... or any other Metalocalypse things in here._**

_**Okay... thank you to everyone who has been reviewing and/or reading. This is just a kind of short mini-chapter. I wasn't even going to write this chapter. I have started the next chapter, but it isn't finished, and I thought about writing this little thing in between the previous chapter and the one I'm going to post next.**_

_**Like I said, it isn't very long. It is kind of just a little extra scene that isn't very essential to the plot... kind of relevant... but not entirely necessary... but then again... most of the scenes aren't essential... Anyway, here go you, and I hope you like it:**_

_**xxxxxx**_

Nathan woke up around 5:00 in the morning. He hadn't gone to sleep until around 2:00 am, and though he was still exhausted, he now had strong craving for some water.

Sleepily, he walked out of his room and down the hallway, making his way to the kitchen. Ordinarily, the chef would be in the kitchen, and sometimes Nathan would make the chef get his glass of water for him, even though he could easily get it himself. Nathan sometimes wondered how the chef managed to be in the kitchen constantly... Did he ever sleep? Maybe he slept in the kitchen... It was very odd, but he didn't really care. The important thing was that the chef was always there, and even though Nathan didn't really need him, he could make the man get his water anyway.

Nathan's expectations of the chef caused him to be slightly confused when he walked into the kitchen, and the chef wasn't there. Nathan made no connection of the fact that their current chef was a different one from usual, and perhaps he wasn't in the kitchen because he didn't know he was expected to be.

"Um... Hello?" he called out. He knew he could easily pour himself a glass of water, but he didn't appreciate the chef not being where he was supposed to be. As far as he knew, they were paying this chef, and they were not paying him to sleep, or to be wherever he was right now. They paid him to be in the kitchen at all times. If ever any of Dethklok wanted some sort of food or beverage, the chef was supposed to be ready to make it.

"Damn it... Where are you... uh... chef guy?" Nathan called out. Nathan paused for a moment, but the chef never answered. He didn't seem to be in the kitchen at all. Nathan frowned, "I guess I'll just get it myself," he growled, "but I can be kind of messy sometimes... especially you know... like right now..." he added, hoping the chef wouldn't want him to make a mess and would come out from wherever he was hiding.

When the chef still didn't show himself, Nathan became even more angry. He took a glass out of a cabinet, filled it all the way to the top with water, spilling water all over the floor and counter as he did so, and then drank about half of the water from the glass. He set the glass back down on the counter, and then picked it back up, took another drink, and slammed it down hard enough to break it.

Nathan winced ever so slightly, feeling pieces of broken glass piercing his skin. He hadn't meant to break the glass with his hand close enough to get cut, but at least now the irresponsible chef would have the extra work of having to clean up not only the water and broken glass, but also Nathan's blood.

Nathan looked down at his hand, which was dripping blood onto the floor. He sighed and decided he should probably get the pieces of glass out of his palm. Fortunately, none of the shards were embedded deep enough to cause a serious issue, so he simply pulled them out and wrapped his hand in a towel.

There was really nothing else to do now. He was still tired, so Nathan decided to go back to his room and sleep for a while longer. As he walked down the halls, he thought of possible song lyrics. He needed to be thinking of something.

He could write one about glass embedded in someone's hand... but that didn't seem quite brutal enough. Maybe he could write one about the dead guy Toki found in the yard... Speaking of which, he still couldn't help but have the suspicion that Toki had actually killed that guy. He didn't know Toki very well, but from what he saw of the teenager so far, the guy wasn't exactly normal, and might be quite capable of murder. Nathan saw that as a positive characteristic, however. As long as Toki never decided to kill _him_, Nathan wouldn't have a problem with this particular personality trait.

Before he reached his room, he noticed the blood from his hand was seeping through the towel. He decided he would go to the bathroom and bandage his hand with some real bandages, which they kept readily available. Mordhaus had a hospital wing, but Ofdensen as well as the band knew that most of the time the boys would try to refrain from going there if they could avoid it, which is why the medicine cabinets in the bathrooms were always stocked.

After bandaging his own hand, not very carefully, but good enough to keep the blood from getting anywhere else it wasn't supposed to be, Nathan walked back into the hallway. As he neared Skwisgaar's room, he saw a lady who seemed to be about forty five years old walking from the direction of the lead guitarist's room.

"Uh... hey, lady..." Nathan stopped her as she approached, "Um... what... What are you doing? Who the hell are you?"

"Oh..." the woman looked down as though she was embarrassed, "I'm sorry... I didn't know Skwisgaar had any brothers... you don't really look like him... I'm sorry if I woke you up... I was just leaving."

Nathan was so confused... who was this lady? And how did she get in here without the guards shooting her? And why was she talking about Skwisgaar?

"Wait a second... who the hell are you?" Nathan asked again.

"Um... Well... I'm a _friend _of Skwisgaar's," she said, implying what Nathan should have been able to pick up on if it weren't so unbelievable. If he didn't know any better, he would think this woman and Skwisgaar had slept together. But this lady was old enough to be Skwisgaar's mother. Maybe she was his mother...

"Are you... uh... his mom?" Nathan asked.

The woman looked quite offended, "No!" she yelled, "I'm his girlfriend!"

Nathan looked disgusted, "Seriously?" he asked, his disgust evident.

"Yes," the woman repeated, "and I'll be seeing you around later. Good day." she stormed off down the hallway. Nathan assumed she was leaving. He hoped she was. Why was Skwisgaar dating someone so much older than him? Surely the guitarist could do better...

Nathan stood where he was for a moment, trying to make sense of the situation. Perhaps people in Sweden didn't know how to pick girlfriends right, and they thought just any female would work.

While Nathan stood and thought, Skwisgaar walked out of his room, "Hellos, Nathans," Skwisgaar greeted him. When Nathan didn't respond, and simply stared at him, Skwisgaar continued, "what's you doings?"

"Uh... I talked to your... uh... girlfriend," Nathan told him.

"Whats?" Skwisgaar asked.

"Yeah... some lady who was like... you know... twice as old as you... I talked to her... she just left, and she said she was your girlfriend."

Skwisgaar laughed, "Ha! Womens... hm? Dey think just if yous sleeps with dem ones time dey your girlfriends. Dat's a laugh."

_Ewww..._ Nathan thought, _he really did sleep with her... _Of course, Nathan didn't care about Skwisgaar's personal life... If he wanted to have sex with women twice his age, that was his deal, "Well... you might want to uh... like tell her not to come back here..." Nathan informed him, "because... if she does... and you didn't invite her... like... the guards might shoot her if they don't know who she is."

"Well... hopefullies she doesn't comes backs withs-outs invitations, hm?" Skwisgaar laughed, walking passed Nathan.

Nathan shook his head and walked back to his room. His new guitarists were not normal. Not even close.

_**xxxxxx**_

_**Please review, and I'll be posting the next chapter sometime relatively soon. :)**_


	10. The Cost of being a Dethklok Chef

**Thank you to everyone who is reading, reviewing, favouriting, and whatever.**

**Ahh!! Sorry it's taking me so long to update... End of the semester and all... lots of procrastination throughout the semester all leading to these last few weeks, during which I will need to write two papers, read two books, take six final exams... finish my website... do lots of math homework... X_X Oh damn... Anyway, I guess my point is this: I have way too much stuff I need to do, and don't have much time for anything else, this story included...**

**So here's a new chapter for you... It's not really long, but it's not too short either. I hope you like it. :)**

**xxxxxx**

Toki slept for longer than he intended to. Yesterday afternoon he had gone to his room, intending to go back to sleep. But he wasn't tired anymore once he gotten there. Instead, he built a few more model planes which he had ordered after taking so much pleasure in constructing the previous one, walked around the halls for a while, waiting for one of the other band mates to wake up, and then finally gave up. He went to sleep around 7:00pm. He supposed he was much more tired than he thought, because he slept for about 14 hours, waking up around 9:00am the next day. He assumed one of his band mates or Charles would wake him up a few hours after he had fallen asleep, but no one bothered. He decided to go talk to one of his band mates now, to see what he was supposed to be doing.

He understood that being in this band was his 'job' now, so he felt the need to do something productive in order to not be fired. Toki walked out into the hallway and down to Skwisgaar's room. He was most comfortable talking to Skwisgaar, since they seemed to understand each other better than anyone else here understood either of them. Toki knocked on the door and waited for Skwisgaar's reply.

He waited a few minutes, but Skwisgaar's reply didn't come, so he knocked again, this time adding, "Skwisgaar! Ams you in deres?"

There still came no answer, so Toki opened the door and peered inside the room. Skwisgaar wasn't there. Toki sighed. He hated trying to find his way around this house all by himself. Maybe Pickles would be in his room. Ofdensen had told him earlier where each of his band mate's rooms were, so Toki walked down the hall until he was at the door of Pickles' room. Next to Skwisgaar, Pickles was the person Toki was the least afraid of. He seemed nice enough, even though he was constantly drunk. At least Pickles didn't hit him, like Murderface, or accuse him of murder like Nathan had...

Toki knocked on the door, but Pickles was not in his room either. Toki was beginning to become angry. No one was in their rooms! He walked to Nathan's room and knocked, opened the door, and saw that he wasn't there either. Toki didn't even bother looking for Murderface. Instead, he found his way to the main room, where, sure enough, all four of his band mates were sitting in the hot tub.

"I was looks-ings for yous guys," Toki told them, "what's I supposed to be doings?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Murderface asked.

"Abouts in dis bands... What ams I supposed to be doings as parts of has dis jobs of rhythms guitars?" he rephrased.

"Ha," Murderface laughed, "What are you schupposed to be doing? Juscht nothing! Juscht come to the practisches. And practisch on your own scho you won't schtart to schuck."

Toki nodded. He didn't want to practice on his own. He knew he was already good enough, "Okays... whens am de first practice we goes to?"

"We practiced today," Nathan told him, "You weren't there."

"Yous didn'ts tells me dere was a practicings today!" Toki yelled.

"You were asleep. I didn't want to wake you up... That's not my job," Nathan informed him.

"Hows am I supposed to knows when is de practice den if no ones wills tells me!?" Toki persisted, raising his voice slightly.

"Well, everyone elsche managed to be there!" Murderface yelled back, "We didn't have to wake up Skwischgaar, and he schtill schowed up! It'sch not our fault you're alwaysch aschleep!"

"Hows dids he knows for to shows ups if you didn'ts tells him to!?" Toki countered, "And whens dids you has a practices!? It's onlies nines o'clocks rights now! You guys never sleeps?!"

"Actuallies, I was ins de rooms and we alls decide to has practicings, but you were nots dere... so we just dids a practicings withouts you," Skwisgaar explained, "you cant's just sleeps alls day, Tokis," he added.

Toki frowned, and was about to say something else when Pickles spoke first.

"Don't worry about it, Toki," Pickles told him, "We'll tell ya next time, okay? We didn't really do much anyway, ya know? And Skwisgaar's still writing the guitar parts... so... we don't know whet yer gonna be playin' anyways... Let's practice like... tomorrow sometime, and we can make sure we're all there this time, okay?"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Toki let out a frustrated sigh, and muttered under his breath, "yous guys probablies forgets to tells me agains..." He then spoke where the band could hear him, "I's goings to goes makes a sandwiches... I sees yous guys laters."

Toki left the main room and made his way toward the kitchen. If his band wasn't going to be nice to him, he could at least talk to Walter, the chef he had spoken to the previous day.

When Toki entered the kitchen, he found the chef wasn't there. Because he had absolutely no idea where in the house Walter may have gone to, he walked around the kitchen, looking in cabinets for the chef. Toki sometimes hid in cabinets, so maybe Walter was doing the same.

After a few minutes, Toki still hadn't spotted the chef, but when he looked down and saw a shattered glass laying in a puddle of water and blood, he started to become worried. It wasn't entirely too much blood, but what if the chef, his new friend, was seriously injured?

"Chefs-guy?" Toki called out, temporarily forgetting the chef's name, "Where ams yous?"

No answer came, so Toki decided to track down Ofdensen. If anyone knew what had happened to the chef, it would be Ofdensen. Toki quickly found his way to Ofdensen's office, and knocked rapidly on the door, "cans I comes in?" he yelled before Ofdensen had a chance say anything.

"Yes," Ofdensen called back, giving Toki permission to enter the room. When he saw how worried Toki looked upon entering the room, Ofdensen immediately wondered what was wrong, "Toki... What's the matter?"

"I was goings at de... kitchens... and I lookings fors de chefs-guys, what's names is Walters... and I looks fors him, but all I finds is just a brokes glass withs some bloods and waters on its... I... um... I ams wonders if maybes you knows whats happens? Ams Walters cuts his hands on de glass? De chefs is missings, and I hopes he didn'ts gets killeds by a glass of waters!" Toki quickly blurted out.

Ofdensen paused for a moment to process what Toki had said, "You're saying you saw a broken glass and some blood in the kitchen and you want to make sure the chef is okay?" he asked.

Toki nodded.

"Well," Ofdensen began, "I'll have someone look into it. Just one moment," Ofdensen picked up a phone from his desk, dialed a number and paused, and then spoke into the phone, _"I need you and a few more men look for Walter, the chef," _there was a pause as Ofdensen listened to the person on the other end of the phone, _"Are you sure?"_ pause, _"Alright... I'll be down in a few minutes."_

Ofdensen hung up the phone and looked at Toki who looked curious as to what the conversation was about, "Toki... I'm going to go take care of something, so you can just go along and do whatever you need to do... I'll talk to you again later..."

"What's dat guys on de phones says?" Toki asked.

"Oh... nothing... I'll just let you know if I find Walter, okay?" Ofdensen told him.

Toki didn't respond. He didn't feel good about how Ofdensen was acting. The person on the phone had said something that had not been just _'nothing.'_ As Ofdensen walked down the hallway, Toki followed at a safe distance. He didn't know where Ofdensen was going, or what he was doing, but he wanted to find out.

Fortunately for Toki, Ofdensen took the stairs rather than the elevator. If the manager had taken the elevator, Toki didn't know if he would be able to see where he was going. Quietly, Toki followed Ofdensen, far enough away so the manager wouldn't see him. At times, Toki felt Ofdensen might actually know he was following, but didn't want to argue with him. Nevertheless, Toki stayed as quiet as he could, slowly following Ofdensen down the stairs, all the way to the basement, and then down a long hallway.

At the end of the hallway, Ofdensen turned right and was greeted by one of the Dethklok employees. Toki couldn't really hear what they were talking about from a distance, so he moved closer, until he could hear, but could still not see anything in the dungeon-like room. At first he could hear only bits of their conversation:

"_...seven or eight... wolves... fire... axe accident... huge spike... on the roof... if...believe it... huge bloody gash..." _he heard bits of what someone was saying.

Then he heard bits of what Ofdensen was saying, _"And... one of them... where did... find him? ...and... happened?"_

Toki could not tell what they were saying, as he could only make out half of the words they were saying, so he quietly moved a bit closer, still unable to see anything, but now able to hear all of what was being said.

"_...in the kitchen earlier today," _Toki heard the end of a sentence spoken by who he presumed was a Dethklok employee.

"_And you're sure it's him?"_ Toki heard Ofdensen's voice.

"_Well, just take a look for yourself,"_ the employee answered,_ "You know what he looks like, right? He's like the only employee besides yourself who doesn't have to wear a hood, so you know what he looks like."_

"_I wouldn't really say I'm simply an employee," _Ofdensen replied, _"And you don't have to wear a hood... You GET to wear a hood..."_ There was then a pause, and then, _"I would say it's him... his face is kind of burned... almost melted away... but he's wearing the coat, and I cannot imagine why anyone else would be wearing it."_

"_Do you want me to keep him down here with the others?" _the employee asked, _"put him on the stack?"_

"_For the time being... but I would like to have a funeral for him," _Ofdensen replied.

Toki hadn't been entirely sure what they were talking about until this point, though the conversation didn't sound promising even from the start, but by the mention of a funeral, he was fairly certain that someone had died. He hoped it wasn't Walter, but he was not holding his breath. He needed to get closer yet, so he could see what was going on. Toki quietly made his way down the hall, peering around the corner at the scene of Ofdensen and an employee, standing near a pile of bodies, and over the single body of what looked to be the body of a man with horribly burned skin. The man was wearing the chef's coat which Walter had been wearing earlier, or one exactly like it.

Without meaning to, Toki must have made some sort of sound, because before he knew it, both Ofdensen and the employee where looking in his direction. He had been caught, and he didn't want to face whatever sort of punishment they had in store, so instead of sticking around, he ran as fast as he could up the stairs, down the halls, and outside, where he knew the yard wolves would be waiting.

Upon racing outside, sure enough the yard wolves ran up to him, jumping on him and licking him. Now that his new friend was likely dead, Toki was back to having no friends again. His band mates sometimes pretended to be his friends, but seemed scared of being nice, and were therefore commonly mean to him.

"I guess yous guys ares my onlies friends nows," Toki told the wolves, "buts I don'ts wants to plays rights now. I just wants to be alones," he informed them. It was almost as though the wolves had understood him. After his last comment, they dispersed, and Toki was left alone to his thoughts.

Just yesterday he had been so glad to have made a kind friend. He supposed this would teach him not to become so attached to people. He had only known the chef for less than a day, but still felt as though he had lost a long-time friend. Perhaps this was because Toki hadn't had many friends throughout his life, and hadn't exactly been shown much kindness by anyone, generally speaking. When he happened upon someone friendly, it seemed like a miracle. (if miracles existed)

Though he felt very sad, he couldn't bring himself to cry. Crying had never done any good in the past. Crying didn't change anything. He had learned that long ago, and didn't even have to hold back tears anymore. They simply were no longer naturally there. Instead of crying, he stared blankly ahead, not sure what he was thinking, or if he was even thinking at all...

Toki didn't know how long he had been sitting outside, pondering his situation, but he felt as though he may have been asleep or something, because at some point he felt as though he was waking up to the sound of Ofdensen talking to him. He didn't recall falling asleep... or being awake... but he now seemed to be waking up. He hoped the manager hadn't been talking to him for too long, because he hadn't heard any of what he was saying.

"...Toki?" he heard Ofdensen say, with a hint of concern in his voice.

Toki blinked and looked up at the manager, "huh?" he asked.

"I think I need to explain to you what happened," Ofdensen suggested, "would you like to come back inside? And we can talk about this?"

Toki nodded. He didn't really want to talk about it. He as pretty sure he knew what happened... Not exactly what happened, but he knew enough to assume the chef was quite dead. But he was cold, and felt a little bit zoned out. If he didn't follow Ofdensen back into the house now, he might not be able to find the house at all in his current state of mind.

Toki followed Ofdensen inside to a room which was like a study of some sort. Toki hadn't been in this room before. It was relatively small and contained just a few chairs and a coffee table.

Ofdensen instructed Toki to sit, and then explained exactly what happened, "I'm sorry, but the chef, Walter, seems to have had a cooking accident, and he's dead," Ofdensen began, and then waited for Toki's response. He didn't want to flood Toki with every detail all at once. Toki's response, however, was simply in the form of the guitarist staring at him, "Did you hear me?" Ofdensen asked.

Toki nodded.

"Alright... Well, we aren't sure exactly how, but he got burned somehow. Number 389 found him this morning in the kitchen," the manager explained.

"Numbers?" Toki wondered aloud, "Who is Numbers? What's dat means?"

"Each employee had a number rather than a name," Ofdensen explained.

"Why?" Toki asked simply.

"To make things easier I suppose," Ofdensen guessed. It hadn't been his idea to give the employees numbers in exchange for their names.

"Buts den we has to remembers numbers insteads of names... I don'ts knows abouts you... buts remembers a millions krillions numbers sounds hards," Toki explained, seemingly forgetting about the fact that the chef was dead.

"Well," Ofdensen began, "It was Nathan's idea..."

"Oh," Toki responded.

"Anyway," Ofdensen continued, "I don't know if you care, but there are seven or eight more employees who died as well. I believe it's eight. Seven in the basement, and the other chef has also died from his illness. I know this is a lot to take in, but we do have a lot of employees here, and a lot of dangerous tasks for them. Accidents are bound to happen."

"I don'ts cares. I just wants to says a speech fors Walter's funerals," Toki told him, with no emotion in his voice.

"Alright. We will have the funeral tomorrow if that's okay with you," Ofdensen told him.

"Why nots todays?" Toki asked.

"Well... do you think we can get ready that quickly?" Ofdensen asked.

Toki nodded, "Yeah. We just burns him. Likes a Vikings. Just puts on some sticks. Makes a fires and throws him ons dere."

"Alright," Ofdensen agreed, "I'll get all of the employees and the rest of the band together within a few hours. Do you want funerals for the other employees?"

"I don'ts cares," Toki told him, "I didn'ts knows dem. You can just leaves dem in de basements if you wants."

_**xxxxxx**_

_**Woot! Employees are starting to die now... more...**_

_**The next chapter will contain Walter's funeral, and Toki's Eulogy speech. (did I spell "eulogy" right?) I'm going to try to end this soon, but I don't know how to do so...**_

**_Hey... and review maybe? I'll try to update kind of soon... but like I said earlier... procrastination has kind of screwed me... AGAIN. So I'm really busy with all of my school stuff for the next few weeks._**

_**Dethklok Employee Death Count So Far: 11**_


	11. Funeral

_**Sorry for making you wait so long between updates. This chapter is kind of long... I've written longer, but I've written far shorter as well. I hope you like it:**_

_**xxxxxx**_

Ofdensen had quickly arranged a funeral for the chef. It wasn't to be lengthy or very drawn out. It hadn't taken more than an hour to plan; Ofdensen and Toki would each say a few words about the man, whom neither knew entirely well, and then his body would be burnt in a Viking-style funeral.

Toki had been informed by Ofdensen that the funeral would be in an hour, and had been told Ofdensen would come and get him then, and to be ready.

Though Toki didn't know the chef very well, he felt he had made a sort of connection with the man. Had he not died, Toki and Walter may have become great friends, which made Toki feel somewhat sick, considering how difficult it is to make friends sometimes. He couldn't remember ever having any good friends. In Norway he spent most of his time at home, staying silent as his parents ordered, and when he did go out where there were other people, it was just long enough to introduce himself, but he would never see any of the people he met ever again. While he lived in Sweden, he was much more preoccupied with survival than making friends.

Toki wasn't sure if Skwisgaar or Pickles considered him a friend. He had a strong feeling neither Nathan nor Murderface did, and Skwisgaar was kind of mean to him sometimes. Pickles was so drunk, any kindness he showed toward Toki might not have even been intentional, but rather semi-conscious drunken mumbling. Maybe he would just have to live without having friends... Whenever he made a friend, they would either turn out to be a jerk, die, or just never see him again after their initial meeting. He supposed he didn't really need friends anyway, as he had lived this long without any. He could surely survive the rest of his life without any as well.

Toki sighed and made his way to the kitchen. He felt rather depressed. Walter seemed like a very nice guy, and Toki had been so excited to have made a friend. He supposed drinking might make him feel better, if only just slightly.

Without considering the fact that he was to speak at Walter's funeral in a mere hour, Toki took a bottle of vodka out of the refrigerator, and a glass out of a cabinet. Pickles had showed him how to mix drinks, but Toki didn't want to waste time drinking orange juice as well. Therefore, he decided the quickest way to dull his sadness would be to drink the vodka by itself.

He filled the cup half-way with the vodka. Would that be enough? He didn't want to risk it, so he filled it more, to where the contents of the bottle and the contents of the cup were about equal. That should do it.

Toki took a big gulp of the liquid. He didn't entirely care for the taste, but after a few more gulps, he was getting used to it. He still had a long way to go before his glass would be empty though. He decided to drink it a little more slowly after a minute though, when he felt already like he might throw up. Toki walked into the main room, sat down, and sipped at the drink.

After a few minutes of silence, Nathan walked in. Toki didn't want Nathan to know he was slightly drunk, so he sat up as straight and stayed as still as he could. He knew Ofdensen hadn't wanted him to get drunk, and knew maybe someone else in the band had told him to pace himself... but he didn't quite recall who had advised him of that, or if anyone did.

"Hellos... um... Nathans..." Toki greeted him.

"Hi," Nathan said back, "that uh... funeral Ofdensen was talking about... what's that for? I was only half listening... Do we...uh... Do we have to go?" he asked, apparently not noticing that Toki was drunk.

Toki took another drink of his vodka and then looked back at Nathan, "De funerals... ams... is... de funerals... is fors de chef... he dies..." Toki wasn't sure what he was saying. In mid sentence, he was forgetting what he was trying to say, "Whats was de questions?"

Nathan looked confused, "What? Uh... the question was... uh... Do we have to go?" he repeated.

Toki looked as though he was deep in thought, "Do we has to goes? Goes where?"

"To the funeral!" Nathan yelled, becoming frustrated. He watched as Toki took another gulp of his drink, "What are you drinking?" he asked, standing up and walking toward Toki.

"Nothings!" Toki yelled, defensively, "de funerals... yes... we has to goes..." Toki slumped down in his chair, no longer caring about his posture, not because he didn't care if Nathan knew he was drunk, but because he simply didn't consider it might give him away.

"Are you drunk?" Nathan asked.

Toki shook his head, "No... ams you?" he slurred.

Nathan smiled, "you are! You are completely wasted!"

"Don'ts tells Oftss... Ofdenss... Off-Dens-Sens... I supposeds to am says somethings at de funerals, and he mights be mads if he knows I was ams drinkings... But I nots drunk..." Toki muttered quietly.

Nathan laughed, "Oh... I won't tell him," he promised, "but yeah... I think I might want to go to this funeral after all... What are you going to talk about at it?"

"Whats am I goings to talks abouts at it?" Toki repeated the question, "...uh... I talks abouts dat he's deads... and I says... you knows, _'I likes him... but he deads...'_ands... whatevers else..."

"Oh... good," Nathan told him, "good... then, I'll see you there... Keep drinking that. I think it's making you speak English better, believe it or not," he lied.

"Reals-ies?" Toki wondered, "I wonders for whys it does makes me speakings it betters..."

"Uh... yeah," Nathan responded, unsure of whether what Toki had just said was a question or comment. Then, after a short pause, "... Uh... okay... I'll see you later then." Nathan repeated.

"Okays... byes... Nathans... I sees yous in de laters at wheres am in a funerals laters..." Nathan walked away as Toki continued speaking, "tells Ofdensens wheres to finds me laters.... says he comes and gets me whens am funerals buts where he doesn't know might be wheres I am..."

Now sitting alone in the main room, Toki finished the glass of vodka. He didn't notice just how drunk he was until he decided to stand up, and promptly fell back down onto the chair. He laughed and tried again. When he failed again, he tried a third time and let himself fall forward, deciding he would simply crawl to wherever he wanted to go. He crawled over to another chair near the one where he was sitting originally. He didn't feel confident that he would be able to make it to a different room, so he simply slumped down in the chair and waited for something to happen. He wasn't sure what he was waiting for, but in a moment, something did happen: Ofdensen entered the room. Toki hoped he wouldn't be angry with him, but maybe he could hide his drunkeness.

"I know I'm a bit earlier than I originally told you, but if you're ready, I think we should have the funeral now," Ofdensen told him, "did you want to dress up nicely? Or just wear what you have on?"

"I just wears whats am dis I haves on," Toki informed him, "I readies."

Ofdensen could smell alcohol and had Toki spoken English better in general, he might have been able to tell for sure whether or not he was drunk. As it were, he could only safely guess that Toki was drunk, "Are you sure you don't want to wait until tomorrow?" he asked, "You seem a bit drunk..."

Toki shook his head, "no! I ams nots drunks! You tells me nots to be, and I don'ts! I just needs to goes do dis funerals; gets it overs for.... withs..."

Ofdensen sighed. He supposed it didn't really matter if Toki was drunk at the funeral. Walter didn't have any family in the area, so Toki being drunk wouldn't really offend anyone. He had hoped the young guitarist would refrain from getting drunk, but he supposed he wasn't entirely surprised, considering Toki was a sixteen year old with access to tons of alcohol, and with four very unfavourable role models who drank all the time.

He agreed to hold the funeral as planned, helping Toki walk outside to where it would be held. Even though Toki was slurring horribly, with unfocused eyes, and stumbling enough to where he needed Ofdensen's help to walk, he still denied being drunk.

Ofdensen led Toki up to the place where the rest of the band was standing, which was a sort of raised area surrounded by an audience of Dethklok employees. Ofdensen said what he had to say first.

"The death of Walter, the chef, while unexpected and still not entirely understood, is also a sadness for all of us," he began, knowing that most likely no one but Toki was listening, and even Toki most likely wasn't comprehending most of what he said, "Walter was a fine chef and a kind man, and will most definitely be missed. Now, Toki, who spent time getting to know Walter a bit before his death, would like to say a few words."

This was Toki's cue to begin talking, but apparently the cue was lost on him, as he simply stood, swaying slightly, not saying a word. Nathan was doing all he could to keep himself from laughing, while Pickles was also quite drunk and so not phased in the least, and Murderface and Skwisgaar were not even paying attention at all to anything that was happening.

"Toki," Ofdensen repeated.

The second mention of his name got Toki's attention, but he still didn't interpret that it was his turn to speak. Instead, he turned wobbly toward Ofdensen, looking at him with unfocused eyes.

"Go ahead and say what you want to say, Toki," Ofdensen said, as straight forward as he could. He hoped Toki being drunk wasn't making English impossible for him to understand. He had seemed to still understand the language well enough when he was quite drunk in Sweden.

"Oh..." Toki realized what was going on. Still very drunk, he began speaking, slightly coherent sentences, "I ams fors... sads fors de deaths of whats was ins de kitchens. His was Walters, and was de chefs... I goes in deres yestersday and eats cereals. Walters... saids he lives... was in froms Californias. Californias is whats in de states where we ares, but nots dis ones. Walters dies. I thoughts he gets cuts up with brokens cup, but I follows Ofdensens and he just dies in fires whats melts his face," Toki started. Though his speech was not in the least what someone might expect at any sort of funeral, no one stopped his drunken words. The employees dared not question Dethklok, Ofdensen couldn't really care less what Toki said, and the remaining members of Dethklok found this quite hilarious.

By this time, both Skwisgaar and Murderface had started to listen to Toki as well. Murderface looked just as amused as Nathan, and Skwisgaar, though slightly amused, had a hint of annoyance in his facial expression. It was difficult to understand Toki sometimes when he wasn't drunk. Now that he was, half of what he was saying didn't make any sense at all to his band mates.

Toki swayed slightly as he spoke, and seemed to be talking to himself more than to anyone in the audience or any of his band mates. Hie eyes were completely unfocused as he continued, "Deres was once when I goes and talks to hims and mights has talks abouts cereals. We eats whats kinds what has on a rabbits on it. He says he froms... he...we eats cereals. I tells him I leaves and den I goes aways. I never has a chefs, but I likes for to has ones. Sometimes maybe Walters might has invented cereals with rabbits on it."

Toki's speech ended there, rather abruptly. The funeral proceeded and then Toki went inside and threw up. The rest of the band went about with whatever they had been doing prior to the funeral, as none of them had ever really talked to the chef besides ordering him to make them something to eat, and therefore didn't really care that he was dead.

Skwisgaar, however, felt it necessary to check on Toki. He remembered the night when they were at the hotel and Toki was extremely drunk. Ofdensen had trusted him to look after Toki to make sure he didn't drown in his own vomit, and it seemed it would be a shame after all of this if he were to drown in his vomit now. Since Skwisgaar had been trusted to look after drunk Toki once, he figured it might now always be his responsibility if the younger guitarist got drunk, to look after him.

Without letting any of his band mates know where he was going, Skwisgaar went to the bathroom where he knew Toki was throwing up. He knew he wasn't supposed to show any interest in his band mates' personal lives, but he didn't want Toki to drown in his own throw up, and was also simply worried about him. Why did he feel so inclined to drink so much so quickly?

Skwisgaar slowly opened the door to the bathroom, where Toki was sitting, leaning against the wall. Toki looked up at him and then back down, "Whats you wants?" Toki asked, sounding upset.

"I just makings sure yous not drowns in yours throws up," Skwisgaar explained simply.

"Well... I nots..." Toki informed him, not presently in the mood for the older guitarist to make fun of him, "So you cans leaves."

Toki was clearly a bit more sober than he had been at the funeral, though still not entirely so. Skwisgaar knew Toki wanted him to leave, but he didn't want to, so he didn't. Instead, he asked Toki more questions, "Why you drinks so much? Was fors because you sad dat guys is dead?"

Toki glared up at him, "I don'ts cares," he lied, "He's just a chefs, rights? I hardly even knows him..." Toki was angry because no one else seemed to care the chef was dead. Maybe he shouldn't care either... His band mates were just going to make fun of him for it.

"I understands if you feels sad," Skwisgaar told him, "you maybe doesn't knows him veries wells, but maybes what you dids knows of him you likes, and when he dies, you sads dat littles bits of hims dat you did knows is gone."

Toki frowned and nodded. He didn't expect Skwisgaar to be very understanding, but he seemed to know why Toki was depressed about the death of a man he had only just met. It wasn't so much that he would miss Walter, since he lived a large majority of his life without him. His issue was with the fact that Walter could have become a good friend, but now that chance was shattered.

Since Toki didn't seem like he wanted to say anything more, Skwisgaar continued, "Lets me tells you advice, hm?" Skwisgaar offered, "likes you ams a littles brothers and I gives to you advice of olders brothers: drinkings and gettings drunks isn'ts helpfuls in dealings with problems. You just ends up makes yourselfs sick and den you stills sads de next days, onlies also withs a headaches."

Toki looked at Skwisgaar, but still didn't say anything else.

"Drinkings is somethings you do fors fun," Skwisgaar told him, "or maybes just when you has a littles stress... Nots when you reallies depressed, okays?"

Toki nodded.

"You feels betters now?" Skwisgaar asked, "You thinks you dones throwings up?"

Toki nodded again, "I didn'ts eats anythings today... I just throws up alls dat vodkas. I feels a littles betters now."

"Goods," Skwisgaar told him, "you wants me to goes with yous to yours rooms? Makes sure you gets deres withouts passings out ors throwings up alls over yourselfs? Maybe you just sleeps dis offs?"

Toki nodded, grateful that Skwisgaar was making an exception to the rule about caring about each other. Perhaps Skwisgaar wasn't as much as a jerk as he thought.

Skwisgaar led Toki back to his room and made sure he made it to his bed. Skwisgaar turned off the light and closed the door, but not completely. He left it open just a bit, so he could check on Toki again later without waking him. He didn't care that the band wouldn't approve of it. Toki was a teenager, who was drinking to drown his depression. He deserved someone to look after him.

Since Toki was now not as drunk and safely asleep, Skwisgaar left him alone for the time being. He made his way into the main room, where Nathan, Murderface, and Pickles were sitting.

"There you are," Nathan greeted him, "We need to write some stuff and record it for the album. Ofdensen said we need to do that some time... so let's get it over with."

"Buts Toki is asleeps agains," Skwisgaar told him.

"Wake him up," Nathan suggested.

"I can'ts do thats. He just goes to sleeps just now. He was veries drunks if you didn'ts notices. Maybe we waits a whiles and does record and writings laters when Toki is sobers?" Skwisgaar advised.

"It'sch juscht a practische," Murderface cut in, "He'sch not the lead guitarischt anyway, scho juscht come up with yoursch, and maybe schee if you can make a rhythm to go with it. You can do both, right? And then he can juscht play it later."

Skwisgaar frowned. They did need to get this done, and waiting for Toki to be awake or sober was beginning to look like they might have to wait forever. He noticed Pickles was still drunk, but that guy seemed to be drunk constantly. He probably wouldn't know how to play the drums if he _wasn't _drunk, "I guess we cans do dat," he agreed.

"Okay. Good," Nathan said, "Okay then... uh... let's get this done. I wrote some lyrics, and you, Pickles, and Murderface can figure out what to play along with it. I don't care what you do, just as long as it doesn't suck. But I don't think it will be a problem. I've got three different songs in there," he said, handing Skwisgaar some sheets of notebook paper, "So... uh... come up with a rough idea, and then I can sing it while you guys play. I'll be asleep in my room. Okay? Okay... bye."

Nathan left the main room, leaving Murderface, Skwisgaar, and Pickles to write the music accompaniment to his lyrics.

Pickles took the lyrics and read them out loud, "Blood Puke," he read the title of a song. Then he looked up at Skwisgaar and Murderface, "Well... since we don't know _how _he is actually gonna say it, we can jest guess... I'm sure it'll sound fine, ya know? I mean... whetever..."

Murderface sighed, "Why don't you guysch write the guitar and drums, and I'll write the bass to fit it later. I'm tired of thisch already."

"Yeah," Pickles agreed, "Whetever."

Murderface left, and Skwisgaar looked at Pickles, "Dis how we writes stuffs? All separatelies? Just guess hows de words goes?" This band didn't seem at all organized, and though his previous band was hardly any more organized, Skwisgaar wasn't sure if this would work very well if none of the band mates knew what the others were thinking. Though they didn't know how Nathan meant for the words to be sung, they were supposed to write music for it.

"It'll be fine. If it doesn't work with this song, we can stick it with another one. Or he can write a song that fits, or change that one up to fit whetever we come up with," Pickles assured him.

"Okays," Skwisgaar reluctantly agreed.

For a few hours, Skwisgaar and Pickles tried out various things until they came up with something they both agreed was brutal. They weren't sure if it fit any of Nathan's songs, but they would definitely have to use it somewhere in the album. Skwisgaar came up with a rhythm to go along with it, for Toki to play, and Murderface would write his bass lines later.

After they had their first masterpiece, they came up with a few more, and then called it a day. They could come up with more later. It wasn't like they were on some sort of schedule. They didn't really have fans yet, so no one was waiting, except Ofdensen.

xxxxxx

Toki woke up feeling a bit of a hang over. He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep, or exactly what had happened prior to him going to sleep. He remembered being at the funeral for the chef, and he knew he was supposed to speak at the funeral. Whether or not he said anything, he didn't recall. He was glad he somehow managed to make it back to his room though. He hadn't remembered that Skwisgaar had led him there.

Toki decided to get up and have some coffee and see what his band mates were doing. He felt he hadn't spent enough time with them. It seemed they always got together while he was asleep or completely drunk. He didn't want them to decide they didn't need him and fire him.

He made his way to the kitchen, where there was currently no chef employed. He made some coffee and then looked for his band mates. They were sitting in the main room, as they usually were, watching a television program about a whale that exploded in Taiwan.

"Hellos, guys," Toki greeted them.

"Hey," Pickles greeted back.

Toki stood for a moment and then sat down. These guys weren't very talkative when they were watching the television, "What's yous guys doing?" he asked.

"Nothings," Skwisgaar answered, "Oh... yeah... I was meanings for to tells you, we comes up with some ideas fors de albums when you was asleeps. I comes ups withs some ideas fors you to plays on guitars, okays?"

Toki frowned. They had practiced without him again, "Why you always forgets abouts me?!" he yelled, causing each of his band mates to turn their attention away from the television screens and toward him, "I tells yous, wakes me ups next times fors practicings of guitars! Buts you don'ts! You forgets me agains! Now I nots goings to know whats de hells goings on evers!"

"You were completely wasted," Nathan commented, "I don't think you would have accomplished much if we had woken you up. You probably would have just passed out somewhere."

"Yeah," Murderface agreed, "And only Picklesch and Skwischgaar worked on anything anyway. They juscht made up a schort of outline... Me and Nathan didn't do anything."

"Uh... Don't you mean _YOU _didn't do anything, Murderface?" Nathan pointed out, "I wrote lyrics. Skwisgaar and Pickles wrote music and I wrote lyrics... And _YOU_ did nothing."

Murderface looked stunned, "Well... Uh... I... TOKI DIDN'T EITHER!" he reminded everyone.

Toki was still angry, "Maybes you coulds of wokes me up and I did do somethings! But you don'ts lets me! You never tells me! I nots a physics... uh... psychics!"

"Jest don't worry about it," Pickles advised, "We'll go over it right now, okay? That way we'll all be here, so we'll all know whet's goin' on, okay?"

Toki nodded, still frowning.

"Okay... Skwisgaar, did ya write any of that down? Er did ya jest memorize it?" Pickles asked.

"I just memorize its," Skwisgaar told him. Truthfully, he didn't know how to read or write music, but he didn't want Pickles to know that. They might not want him in the band if they learned that he didn't even know how to read or write music. It was like a great story teller not being able to read or write. Their stories are good, but they look stupid when people figure out they cannot even read what they are saying. It was the same with Skwisgaar. He could play the guitar very skillfully. He knew which strings made which sounds and where to put his fingers to produce different sounds, but he didn't know the names of any notes or anything that he probably should have known. To avoid letting the entire band know, he decided to take Toki aside and teach him the rhythm parts, so at least it would only be Toki who knew instead of everyone.

"How abouts I teach dis to Tokis, in case of it takes a whiles maybes. And den we meets up laters and plays it togethers, hm?" Skwisgaar suggested.

"Fine with me," Pickles agreed.

Skwisgaar led the way as Toki followed him to a large room in Mordhaus. It seemed to be built just for practicing.

"Why don'ts you wants to practices withs everyones elses?" Toki asked finally.

Skwisgaar sighed, "Tokis... ams you did teaches yourselves hows to plays de guitars?" he asked. Toki nodded, "Okays... wells... ams you know dat deres are names of de notes? Deres am a ways to writes down de musics whats you plays, and den you cans reads musics as notes and plays its?"

Toki looked completely lost, "you writes down musics? Dat doesn'ts makes sense. Musics is played, nots reads or writes."

Skwisgaar began to feel better. At first he wasn't sure if Toki knew the names of the notes and how to read and write music, but it now seemed he wasn't even aware there was a way to write down music notes, let alone how to do so.

"What's you talkings abouts?" Toki asked, still not sure what Skwisgaar's point was.

"Nothings... If I plays somethings, and you looks at my fingers whiles I plays it, cans you learns hows to replicates it?" he asked.

"Probablies," Toki told him.

"Okays," Skwisgaar said, "tries dis," he played a series of notes, part of what he had 'written' earlier with Pickles.

Toki repeated it nearly flawlessly.

"Okay... we makes it longers now," Skwisgaar said. He played more of the song and then Toki played it back. They repeated this process until Toki had memorized the rhythm portion of the song. Then Skwisgaar played the lead while Toki played the rhythm.

When they played together, it sounded more brutal than anything either of them had ever heard. Skwisgaar was glad Ofdensen had decided to take Toki as well. The band would have been great without him, but with him it was definitely going to be better.

_**xxxxxx**_

_**In the next chapter, likely the LAST CHAPTER, the band will practice together, record the album, and maybe get a new chef, whose face will be smashed in by a hover craft. He will blow he brain in... blow he brain out. I don't know about you, but I'm getting a bit tired of this story. There isn't much else to say, hardly anyone reviews it anymore, and I've been dragging it out longer than I probably should have. So I'll finish it up soon, so I can write something new and better. :)**_

_**Please review.**_


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